Sweet Dreams of Sanctuary
by Halifax898
Summary: Shepard is tracking down Saren with the rest of the Normandy crew when they encounter a mysterious biotic who joins them on their mission. The biotic quickly develops close ties with the crew, but they seem to be hiding something...Garrus/OC Shep M /Tali
1. The Fated Meeting

Four hours after leaving the Citadel, the Normandy landed in the spaceport of planet Kierlack. Known for its outrageous crime rates, Kierlack is a hub for batarian slavers to sell their "wares" to the public without fear of the Alliance interfering.

"I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that the biotic is going to be put on display in that arena over there," Garrus said as he followed Shepard to the nearest taxi.

Shepard cast a look over his shoulder at the turian. "What makes you say that," he asked with a smile.

Garrus Vakarian nodded in the direction of a large arena far off in the distance. "Possibly all of the spotlights coming from that arena over there, along with the flashing advertisements along the streets asking to come and see the most powerful biotic ever discovered at the Kierlack Arena."

The commander nodded.

It had been a week since the Normandy had left the Citadel, leaving Captain Anderson behind. After telling them about a Prothean expert named Liara T'Soni, Anderson also mentioned hearing about some batarian slavers that some how managed to capture, what they claim is, the most powerful biotic ever discovered. The intriguing part was that these slavers claim that the biotic is crazed, as it keeps ranting about Reapers and how the galaxy was in danger from an impending attack. Since no one has heard of or believes in the existence of Reapers, the batarians had no reason to believe that the biotic was mentally sound. On a hunch, Anderson had asked them to investigate this biotic to find out what they know about the Reapers. A week later, here they were on the crime and poverty stricken world of Kierlack.

"I just hope that this biotic actually knows something that can help us," Shepard stated. "It would be nice to catch a break."

Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, who had been trailing behind the two, spoke up and said, "This biotic must know something. It's too much of a coincidence for someone to turn up talking about Reapers and imminent attack on the galaxy right as Saren is attempting to return the Reapers from dark space."

Once again, Commander Shepard nodded in agreement. He just hoped that this biotic wasn't as crazy as the batarians said it was. Otherwise, he feared he wouldn't be able to get any information out of them that could be of any use to the Normandy team and they would have come all this way for nothing.

The three Normandy squad members, after paying the fare, all hopped into the nearest taxi and were soon speeding off in the direction of the Kierlack Arena.

While they flew over the brightly lit city, a question formed in the commander's mind and he proceeded to turn to his teammates. "Why would they bring the biotic to an arena? Isn't it more secure to bring them to somewhere safer, like a specific building?"

"On any other planet, yes, but here the slavers don't have to worry about disguising what their merchandise is. There are no laws or law enforcement on Kierlack so the slavers can't be charged with anything. Because of this, whatever they catch must be put on display at the arena for potential buyers. With this one in particular, though, they must be expecting a full house. Who wouldn't want to get their hands on as powerful a biotic as they are saying?"

"But it does beg the question: if this biotic is so powerful, how did they get captured by slavers? With biotics like theirs they should have been able to fight their way out no problem, but they didn't. Why?"

The Spectre shrugged. "We'll just have to ask them when we meet them."

"Which," Tali continued, "brings me to my next question. Do we even know if the biotic is male or female? Or even what species it is? The batarians just keep calling it the most powerful biotic ever discovered, but they never said anything more than that."

"It's probably to draw in the crowd. They get curious as they wonder which species gave birth to a biotic as powerful as the one they keep describing. To find out for themselves, they buy tickets to the show find out," Garrus said matter-of-factly. "Though, if I had to venture a guess, I would put my credits on it being an asari. Each one is born with biotics and asari matriarchs are known for the incredible amount of biotic power each one possesses."

"That's true, but for one thing, asari matriarchs are not that easy to capture. Like you said, they have an immense supply of biotics to protect them and they also never venture out to parts of the galaxy where slavers are. They stay in densely populated areas where they can serve as honored advisors. No matriarch has any reason to be this far out in the Terminus systems," the quarian concluded.

Shepard listened as the two went back and forth on their theories on what the biotic's gender and species could possibly be.

Five minutes later, the skycar set itself down right in front of the colossal arena. The doors open and the odd three stepped out into a massive crowd of anxious spectators awaiting their turn to enter the arena. Flashing lights blinked and waved over the sky, determined to get everyone's attention.

"I'll go get us some tickets," Garrus said before disappearing into the sea of diverse spectators.

Shepard looked around the crowd lazily, once again finding himself hoping that the biotic was worth it. A nudge from an elbow interrupted his surveillance of the crowd. He turned to see Tali nodded sideways through the crowd. "Some old friends have come to meet our new friend," she stated with a hard tone to her voice.

The human turned, discretely, to look in the direction she had indicated. Immediately he noticed four humans. Each one had a pistol belted to their waist and wore matching uniforms, but that wasn't what Tali had noticed. It was the familiar symbol stitched into those uniforms, which could only belong to one organization.

"Cerberus," he said icily as he returned his gaze to the gate. "What are they doing here? We don't even know that the biotic is a human."

"It's possible they found out some how by bribing or threatening one of the slavers," Tali said thoughtfully. "Even if it isn't a human, they still may want the biotic to find out how it had obtained so much power."

"Either way, we are not letting Cerberus get that biotic."

Garrus appeared through the crowd and handed each of them their tickets. Shepard proceeded to inform the turian of the unexpected attendees to this show. Garrus looked in the direction of the Cerberus agents, his mandibles twitching in irritation.

After about fifteen more minutes of waiting in line, and a few more wary glances in the direction of the Cerberus representatives, the Normandy squad finally managed to squeeze through the gate and into the area. Already, the stands were three fourths of the way full. The three of them were lucky enough to get a seat in the middle of the stands, near the aisle, in case they had to act in opposition to anything the Cerberus members might try to do.

Another half an hour passed as the seats in the stadium continued to fill with an eager audience. The air hummed with activity as hundreds of conversations overlapped one another. The bright lights continued to flash in the night sky, overshadowing any chance of seeing the stars. Then, suddenly, all of the lights directed their attention on the large stage at the center of the colossal arena. The spotlight fell upon a human man who had just emerged onto the stage.

"Ladies and gentlemen! I welcome you to Kierlack Arena for this special occasion! Today, we celebrate the advancement in the evolutionary chain as a new, more powerful biotic emerges to challenge what we believe to be true power. While attempting to capture this biotic for your viewing, and maybe even purchasing pleasure, twenty one men were killed. Rest assured that no harm will come to you from this crazed powerhouse. We have state of the art technology to keep the biotic's powers in check."

At this the man gestured to four tall metal pillars arranged around the stage. Shepard had seen nothing like it. He wasn't sure how it was going to contain the biotic's supposed exceptional powers.

"We have also taken additional steps such as sedating the biotic so that even if it managed to free itself, it wouldn't even be conscious enough to use them. In case, even this fails, we have hired mercenaries standing by for your protection."

The three members of the Normandy crew looked around and noticed at least thirty mercenaries ringing the stage of the arena, assault rifles drawn and at the ready.

"Now! Our main attraction is arriving by air short-" The announcer was cut off as someone began talking over his comm. system. A couple of words were exchanged before the man turned his attention back to his captivated audience. With a broad smile he said, "Ladies and gentlemen! Asari, humans, turians, batarians, salarians, elcor, hanar, and any other species in attendance! I give you the most powerful biotic in the galaxy!"

As if from cue, a massive ship flew over Kierlack Arena. Its roaring engines were deafening, causing the spectators to clap their hands over their ears. The gusts of wind generated by the massive ship were so strong that the audience had to take a firm grip on their possessions, as well. The ship slowly, gingerly moved over the arena until it was hovering directly above the stage. At this, a circular section of the stage disconnected from the rest and began to rise toward the ship.

"Where the hell did slavers get the money for all of these toys," Shepard asked almost to himself.

"I don't know. They are clearly not taking any chances with this biotic though. Maybe they weren't all talk after all. Maybe this biotic is as powerful as they claim," Garrus speculated.

Tali nodded in agreement with the two as she continued to watch the platform rise into the air to meet the ship. When the platform was halfway to the ship the cargo hold opened its door to greet it. Light spilled from the opening in the ship and definite shadows of multiple figures could be seen waiting in the hold. When the platform reached the ship, the people in the cargo hold stepped onto it.

Suddenly, the four metal towers ringing the stage flared to life. They sent out long blue tendrils that extended to intercept the shadowy figures as they descended from the sky. When the blue ribbons reached them, they wrapped themselves around the wrists and ankles of a small figure in the center of a group of heavily armed soldiers, who were obviously mercenaries. Two soldiers had their hands entwined around, what was assumed to be, the biotic's arms. Four more men ringed the biotic, gripping something tightly in their scarred hands. As the platform descended closer and closer to the stage, it became clear that the four mercenaries were actually gripping chains in their hands. The chains were wrapped around the biotic's stomach, to prevent it from moving or running away.

_Like it could even think of even running away with all this security. From the amount of mercenaries they have here to the anti-biotic technology installed around the stage, there was no way this biotic could even think of escaping,_ Garrus observed.

"It's a little old fashioned to be using chains, isn't it," Shepard said as more of a statement of fact than an actual question. The turian just nodded in agreement and continued to watch.

With a slight hiss, the platform reconnected to the rest of the stage and its passengers began to proceed off it and head towards the eager announcer. The two mercs on either side of the biotic half dragged, half carried the biotic forward, the blue tendrils still attached to its wrists and ankles. The biotic was hooded from a thick brown jacket, still not revealing what species or gender the biotic was. Just by looking at the silhouette, Garrus could rule out certain species immediately. First, it obviously wasn't a krogan, since it was lacking in the typical large size and weight. It wasn't a salarians or quarian either, since its legs didn't bend the same way as an asari, turian, or human's did. It wasn't a turian either because it didn't have a spike on the back of its legs like all turians had. That just left the asari and humans. Which would it be?

As the mercs dragged the biotic to the announcer, who was happily shouting out details of how the biotic was caught, Garrus noticed the biotic was struggling to even keep its head up.

_That's right. The announcer had said they had drugged the biotic_, Garrus recalled. He continued to watch them drag the biotic over to the chatty announcer, the biotic still fighting to keep its head up.

When the mercs finally dragged their prisoner before the announcer, the two mercs on either side of the biotic released their grip and the biotic crumpled to the group, apparently too weak to keep its legs beneath it. It stayed there, wavering slightly, as if there was a strong wind that it was struggling to stay upright against. The announcer, with a face television ready smile, marched fearlessly over to the weakened biotic. When he stood before the biotic he reached out and gripped the hood of its jacket. Garrus could feel the excitement radiating from the crowd as everyone crept onto the edges of their seats and held their breath for this moment.

"Ladies and Gentlemen! I give you the most powerful biotic in the galaxy!" With that the announcer ripped the hood off the biotic's head. There was a collective gasp from the audience.

The biotic was a human woman.

She was stunning by human standards. Long tresses of obsidian black hair were tied securely behind her head, except for a few locks that eluded the hair tie and hung around her face. Her skin was pale, but hard to tell just how much since she had so many spotlights fixated on her at that moment that they gave her skin a sort of glow. But it wasn't her hair or her skin color that had the audience captivated. It was her eyes. They were a startling shade of blue. So blue, in fact, it looked like they even had a glow to them. The color of these eyes had a strange effect as they looked at you, like they were looking into the depths of your soul as easily as looking through an open window. They were depthless and filled with a deep fire, but yet Garrus could sense something else...a profound sadness that threatened to drown that fire in her eyes.

His thoughts were interrupted as he realized that the announcer was signaling some of the mercs to try to get her on her feet so that the audience could see her better. Some of the mercs holding the chains gave a little tug. The biotic tilted weakly sideways and would have fallen over if she hadn't caught herself by bracing her arm on the floor of the stage. Then the mercs from the other side tugged harder on their chains.

Suddenly, the human biotic's arm shot up and gripped one of the chains. One second she was sitting weakly and helplessly on the stage floor, in the next she was on her feet and ripping the chain out of the mercs' hand and swinging it around her head like a weapon. She whipped the chain at a merc that she saw reaching for his gun and the chain wrapped around his neck, the force of the blow knocking him onto the ground. This all happened in a matter of seconds and the other mercs hesitated for a split second, stunned by what was happening.

The merc whose chain she had stolen was charging her from behind and the human woman didn't have time to reach before he slammed into her and sent her sprawling, the drugs they had given her apparently still hindering her ability to react quickly. But the biotic was already on her feet and in a protective crouch. The merc immediately threw himself at her again, but the same attack didn't work twice on this biotic. She dodged his lunge and as she leaped out of the way she grabbed the mercs' pistol from his belt. In one swift motion, she brought up her new weapon and smashed it into the back of the mercs' skull. In another second, she turned and fired three shots from the pistol at the nearest anti-biotic device that shackled her. The device sputtered, sparked, and in the next moment exploded, killing three nearby mercs still dumbfounded by what was going on. But the mercs were coming to their senses and beginning to draw their assault rifles and pistols. The biotic saw this as well and quickly shot the two mercs still holding onto her chains and then shot the second anti-biotic device, disabling it. Now, only her ankles were shackled.

Chaos was beginning to ensue in the stands. The biotic was breaking free and none of them wanted to be there when she was completely freed of her shackles. They were beginning to rise and hurriedly push their way towards the nearest exit. Voices were beginning to elevate as the biotic destroyed the devices and shot mercs. The people didn't want to be caught in the middle of a fire fight and were now starting to charge toward the exits.

Shepard stood, drawing the assault rifle from his back and looked at his squad mates. "Let's say we give her a hand," he smiled.

"Right behind you," Tali answered immediately.

The three of them pushed their way through the frantic crowd, trying to reach the stage. A few gave startled yelps as they saw the drawn guns in their hands and immediately proceeded to let them through. Others didn't even notice, too absorbed in their goal to reach the exit. Garrus had is sniper rifle drawn and at the ready as he followed Shepard and Tali down through the crowded stands.

The biotic had managed to get off the stage and into some cover alongside it after taking down three of the devices and more than a few mercs, but the amount of bullets that were flying at her that moment hindered her ability to line up at shot at the last shackle and free herself. Garrus stopped, brought up his rifle, lined up his shot, and fired. The bullet hit home, as it always did, and the last shackle exploded, killing two more mercs. Garrus saw the woman shift a surprised gaze from the destroyed device to the stands where she saw the shot come from. Her eyes locked for a split second on Garrus, reflecting a mix of gratefulness and surprise, but also wariness. But it was gone in the next second as she stepped calmly out of her cover and into the hail of bullets.

But the bullets never reached her as a blue biotic barrier repelled them. The mercs hesitated, unsure whether or not to keep shooting, seeing as how it would do them no good. The woman seized this chance as she hopped back onto the stage and into plain sight. But she could also see all of the mercs. In an instant, she brought up her hands and the familiar blue glow of a biotic enveloped her as her powers flared to life. Suddenly, the gun of every merc attacking her was ripped from their hands and pointed at their own heads. The mercs slowly raised their hands in defeat, fear and hate mixed in each of their eyes.

"Walk out of the stadium now and don't even think of coming back," the biotic commanded. "If you even think of getting help, you will be shot with your own gun. Is that clear?" A few of the mercs nodded their heads while others rolled their eyes in annoyance. Then, with their hands still raised above their heads, thirty or so mercs walked out of Kierlack arena held at gunpoint by their own guns.

Shepard and his comrades were at the stage by this time and stepping around the retreating group of mercs who were being followed closely by a crowd of assorted floating assault rifles, sniper rifles, submachine guns, shotguns, and pistols. They stepped up onto the stage just as the human biotic turned to watch them approach.

"Impressive. You certainly are skilled with biotics," Shepard commented.

The woman eyed the commander warily, her strange blue eyes trailing over every detail and then proceeded to examine Garrus and Tali closer. "What the hell is a member of the N7 program doing here," she asked in a hard tone.

"We came to free you, but it seems you didn't need our help to do that…" Shepard said.

"Pretty much. So it looks like you came all this way for nothing," she said, crossing her arms across her chest.

"Not quite. We came to free you so that you could join us."

This piqued her interest as her eyes suddenly lit up with unmasked curiosity. "Join you in doing what? And why do you want me?"

"Well, we heard that you were talking about Reapers. We think maybe you know something about them."

The biotic froze. After a couple of seconds of staring at Shepard in a stunned silence she said, "I know a little. Why are you looking into Reapers?"

"We have evidence that a rogue turian Spectre named Saren is trying to bring them back from dark space and he is working with the geth to accomplish this," Shepard explained.

"And you think I can help you…?"

"Yes. If you have even a little knowledge about the Reapers it could help. We heard about you telling people that they were coming so you must know something about them if you are able to identify to signs that they are coming back, even before anyone else determines that it is Reapers."

She nodded slightly. "True, but I don't know that much. I don't know how much help I would be," she said.

"Even so, your biotic powers are formidable. You would be a great asset to our team," Shepard said.

"Team? Don't you have an army chasing after this crazy turian?"

Shepard looked down slightly, mixed feelings of disappointment and irritation showing on his features. "No. We are the only ones pursuing Saren. The Council stripped him of his Spectre status and made me the first human Spectre and ordered me to bring Saren to justice, but didn't acknowledge the Reaper threat. We are alone in this."

"Okay. Well, first of all: congratulations, Mr. First Human Spectre. Second of all, don't worry about the council. They're always like that, so what'd you expect? Lastly, I would love to join your merry band of…" she looked at Tali and Garrus, "assorted aliens. But first I need to free the slaves kept here and find my things that they took from me." She turned and began to walk briskly across the stage towards a small metal door at the far end of the arena. Shepard and his squad mates rushed to keep up with her, and Garrus observed that she was still tipsy from the drugs the slavers had given her. She had probably been play acting most of the weak and frail looking parts just so the mercs and slavers would think she really was drugged and get a false sense of security.

Shepard's voice interrupted Garrus' thoughts as he asked, "So, with the amount of power your biotics have, you would have easily escaped from the slavers, but you didn't. Why?"

"I was staying at a colony on Freedom's Progress when the slavers hit. I fought them but they had already abducted most of the colony. I tried to free them but in the process used too much biotic power, showing that I was a stronger biotic than average. You could almost see the money symbols in their eyes. I could've run, but if I did the colonists would be taken away and sold. So I let myself be caught so that I could free them, but I hadn't planned on them drugging me, not to mention those weird anti-biotic things. I have no idea where they got something like that."

"So you intentionally let them capture you so you could free the colonists," Garrus inquired.

"Yeah. How else would I have found them again? I don't have a ship and I had no way of knowing where they would be taken. Besides, there wasn't really time to plan. I had to think on my feet and that was the best plan I could think of at the moment," she answered.

"By the way," Garrus began, "We still don't know your name, unless you prefer being referred to as 'hey you.'"

The black haired woman laughed. "I'm Amalia Carter."

After about another hour, all the slaves were freed and given free transport back to their colony. Amalia received more than a few tearful hugs from grateful colonists, both when they were released and when they were boarding their transport. The biotic just would smile and hug them, seeming genuinely glad to see them safe and happy. Amalia also found her stolen belongings in a makeshift office. All it was was a large, army green duffel bag. Whatever was in it seemed to fill up the entire bag, seeing as how it had bulges and protrusions everywhere.

When the last transport had left, carrying the newly freed slaves back to their homes, Shepard led the way back to the Normandy. Amalia was still groggy from the drugs as she swerved when she tried to walk in a straight line. Garrus was surprised she had been able to function for that long.

Shepard escorted her down to the med bay, insisting that Dr. Chakwas examine her and ensure that the slavers didn't pump anything else into her system. Amalia had immediately protested, forcing Shepard to assert his authority and order her to stay. After that, not a word was said, although she did glare at him as he left the med bay. Dr. Chakwas gave her something that would help speed any drugs she had in her out of her system, but Chakwas wanted to keep her in the med bay for observation, just in case. Amalia just nodded her consent, laid down on the medical bed, and was asleep in minutes.


	2. Exploration

7

Amaila woke from her deep slumber in the med bay of the Normandy. She blinked her blue eyes against the brightness of a light that was installed above her head. Slowly, she sat up, disoriented and confused for a moment as she tried to recall where she was. For a moment her mind was blank, but in an instant it all came rushing back. The attack on Freedom's progress, being taken to Kierlack arena, escaping, freeing the slaves, and then meeting that human, Commander Shepard, and listening to him tell her about the Reapers that some turian named Saren was trying to bring back from dark space.

The dark haired woman mentally shook her head.

_Reapers?_ She thought to herself. _That's not a good sign._

The young woman swung her legs over the side of the bed and slowly set them down on the cool metal floor of the med bay. Her socks must have been removed sometime before she fell asleep, but she couldn't remember when. She hunted around and eventually found what she was looking for: her tall black boots with her socks tucked safely inside. They were sitting beneath a work desk but there wasn't any staff in the med bay at the moment. Amalia recalled someone called Dr. Chakwas helping her last night, but only vaguely.

_Maybe that was_ _who the desk belonged to,_ Amalia mused.

Hurriedly, she slipped on her socks and then her boots, making sure to tuck her tan cargo pants into the top of her boots. Then she was off, striding out of the med bay and into the rest of the Normandy. Since she didn't know her way around, she was forced to simply wander around as she explored every corner of the Normandy.

First, she explored the crew deck, taking mental notes of where the bathrooms and showers were located. She then proceeded to the kitchen, noticing a few crewmen trying to eat what looked to be breakfast. Upon further wandering she found a few rooms whose doors were locked against entry and the crew quarters, with rows of bunks stacked along the walls.

Next, she took the elevator up to the CIC. When she exited the elevator she was surprised to see the amount of people that were running back and forth, busy with habitual duties that demanded their attention. In the center of the CIC was a large galaxy map and leaning up against the railing, looking down at the map, was Commander Shepard.

He must have heard the elevator door open because he turned just as she stepped off. A slight smile crossed his face as he walked away from the galaxy map to come meet her. He extended his hand and Amalia shook it. "Good to see you on your feet. Those drugs must have taken a number on you," he said.

Amalia released his hand and cocked an eyebrow. "What do you mean? I slept about the same as everyone else."

The smile widened ever so slightly. "Actually, no. You've been asleep for nearly two days."

The young biotic blinked in surprise but almost immediately recovered. "It was probably just because I needed to recover from using my biotics. That's all," she stated calmly.

"Well I hope you're fully rested and feeling better. We're going to need you in the battles to come," Shepard said.

"Yes, sir," Amalia smiled, even going so far as to do a mock salute. Shepard laughed a little and Amalia couldn't help but feel like she was going to like it here.

"Well, take a look around. There's plenty to see. We'll be back in a little bit." The commander began to walk past her towards the elevator.

"Where are you going?" she asked.

"We have another potential recruit to pick up. It's an asari who's an expert on the Protheans. We think she can help us," he said.

Amalia remained silent, choosing not to say anything in response except for a slight nod. With that, Shepard turned and walked into the elevator, the doors closing silently behind him.

_Prothean expert?_ Amalia scoffed. _I highly doubt that._

After that, Amalia resumed her exploration of the Normandy. She stopped and talked to a few of the crew members along the way. The first she spoke to was Joker, who she instantly took a liking to due to his sarcastic, wisecrack attitude and jokes. She wasn't sure how to feel about Pressley, since he didn't want to talk to her because he said he was just too busy.

_And yet Joker can spare a few words while he flies a ship_, Amalia thought with amusement.

She also encountered another biotic named Kaidan Aleinko. Even from that short encounter, Amalia could already tell that he possessed and incredible amount of integrity, but they still bonded very quickly over their shared biotic abilities. After about an hour of talking, they were already swapping stories like old friends. She even offered a few techniques for using biotics in battle that Kaidan quickly turned it down, saying he didn't need any help. But as Amalia left, she knew that Kaidan was making a mental note of what she had said.

Next, Amalia ran into the quarian who had been at Kierlack arena. Tali'Zorah vas Neema was a young quarian on her pilgrimage who had apparently stumbled across the evidence that Saren was working with the Reapers. Amalia listened as she told her the story of how she came across the data, was pursued by assassins, and rescued by Shepard. Amalia had never really spent that much time with a quarian, but she was already beginning to enjoy Tali's company. She loved her energetic and happy personality. Amalia found herself already looking forward to the next time they would talk.

Two members of the crew were missing, since they had accompanied Shepard on his mission to recruit the Prothean expert: Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams and Urdnot Wrex. That last one caught Amalia by surprise. She had met only a few krogan in her life, and none of them had been friendly, so she wasn't sure what to expect.

After what would be assumed to be almost a full day onboard the Normandy, Amalia finally reached the last floor on the elevator: the cargo bay. She hadn't expected to find anything down there except for a few storage containers. Instead she found a massive truck called the Mako parked in the center of the cargo bay. The biotic slowly walked up to the hulking vehicle, taking in every detail when she heard someone from the other side of the Mako call, "can you hand me that omni wrench over there?"

Not quite knowing what an omni wrench was, Amalia proceeded to walk over to a storage container that had a long metal object sitting on top of it. She grabbed it and walked around the side of the Mako to find the source of the voice.

Standing alongside the Mako was the same turian that Amalia had seen on Kierlack with Shepard and Tali. He was clad in blue armor, which was the typical attire for a turian. It reminded her of the armor worn by the turians employed at C-Sec. As the turian turned to look at her, she was suddenly caught by his eyes which were a deep shade of blue and complemented by the blue clan markings on his face.

She extended her hand with the omni wrench in it. "Here you go."

"Thanks. So I see you're finally awake," the turian said, taking the omni wrench.

"Yeah. I think I used a little more of my biotic power than I was used to and my body wasn't prepared," she said a little sheepishly.

"Used to?"

"Oh! I don't use my biotics everyday. I actually hadn't used them in years. Guess I was a little rusty."

The turian turned back to the Mako and began to use his newly acquired omni wrench to work on the monstrous vehicle before him. "That's funny. I always thought that biotics would be useful to do things like household chores. Imagine, using your mind to cause a broom to sweep a room or bed to make itself. Sounds really useful to me," he said. Amalia had never spent much time with a turian so it was hard to decipher their expressions, especially when you had to account for the movements of their mandibles, but she was pretty sure if he could he would be smirking.

Amalia laughed. "That would be nice, wouldn't it? Problem is that it actually uses more energy to move a broom with your mind than to do it yourself. Its kind of a waste of energy," she smiled.

The turian stopped to look at her. "You sound as if you speak from experience."

Amalia remained silent, biting her lip to keep from laughing as she feigned innocence.

He straightened and turned to look at her. "Something you want to get off your chest," he asked, his voice completely serious as he looked at her.

She shrugged. "I have no idea what you're talking about," she said innocently, a smile playing on her lips.

"Right," he said slowly, obviously not believing her. "Well, I'm staying in the main battery if you ever want to swing by and confess to something."

"I still don't know what you're talking about."

"Sure you don't. And I'm a pole dancer from Chora's den," he said jokingly, and yet still keeping completely serious.

Amalia struggled against the urge to burst out laughing. "I'm sure you look fantastic in those tight outfits they have to wear. I bet you get a lot of tips," she grinned.

"You have no idea. I earned so many credits that I retired early, but I sometimes stop by on special occasions. You won't believe the crowds that I can draw. There is actual rioting when people find out they can't get inside to see the show," the turian continued.

That was too much. Amalia couldn't hold it in anymore as she burst out laughing. After a couple of seconds, the turian even joined in. Amalia laughed until her sides hurt and tear threatened to trail down her cheeks. They must have laughed for a full two minutes before they were able to calm down again.

"I was hoping you'd start laughing soon so I could stop. I was going to start going on about giving lap dances to other turians," he gasped as he tried to catch his breath from laughing so hard and outwardly shuddering at the thought.

Amalia was doubled over, still trying to catch her breath. She smiled as she said, "glad I dodged that bullet."

"Me, too."

"So what's your name?" Amalia said after she caught her breath a couple seconds later.

"Garrus Vakarian. I'm a former C-Sec officer and the best sniper in the galaxy," he said, the smile still in his voice.

"Really," Amalia began, crossing her arms over her chest. "You certainly don't lack for confidence."

"Well, it's well-deserved," Garrus said.

"Oh, and modest, too," she grinned. "So you're a former C-Sec officer? What happened?"

"I was trying to prove Saren was a traitor but it blew up in my face. As a Spectre, he was untouchable and my superiors didn't want me pursuing him," Garrus said in a sour voice. The turian paused, as if to collect his thoughts, before he continued. "So when I heard Shepard was going after Saren, I offered my help and left C-Sec to help. I've been here ever since."

"How long have you been after Saren?" the dark haired woman inquired.

"About a week. We left straight from the Citadel to come and get you, with a few stops along the way to answer a distress signal or destroy a Cerberus base or two. That's kind of the usual around here," Garrus responded.

"Cerberus? That human centric terrorist group?"

"Yeah. They apparently have no same in brutal experiments so whenever we find one, we immediately stop, kick their asses, destroy the base, and move on," Garrus said. "You ever had run-ins with them?"

Amalia shook her head. "I've never met any of their agents. Only heard about them from the news or extranet."

"Really? 'Cause, there were Cerberus agents at the arena when we were there. Seemed like they were really interested in you."

"Me? Why?"

"Probably your biotic abilities. They are interested in anything that "advances humanity." That's their trademark line that they give to justify the atrocities they commit," Garrus said in a disgusted tone.

"Okay. Mental note made: avoid Cerberus and if you find a base, blow it into orbit."

Garrus laughed lightly. "So what about you? What's your story?"

Amalia shrugged and absentmindedly brushed a stray strand of black hair behind her ear. "I don't really have a story."

"Well, how about where you grew up?"

"I traveled a lot and didn't spend much time in one place. I pretty much grew up on the move."

"What about where you were born?"

"London. It's a major city on earth. What about you?"

"Cipritine. It's the capitol of Palaven. Any family?"

"Dad died a long time ago and I don't really know about my mom. We were never close. You?"

"My father is a former C-Sec officer, retired now and living on Palaven with my mom and younger sister."

"A sister? What's her name?" Amalia asked, genuinely curious to learn more about Garrus.

"Solana," Garrus answered, his voice sounding far away. He was probably thinking about his family.

"It's a pretty name," she complimented, smiling slightly a Garrus noticeably jerked out of his reverie. The turian just nodded in response.

"Okay. What about…your favorite color? You have a favorite color?" she asked, her eyes looking him up and down. She had a feeling she could predict the answer but she still waited for his answer.

"Blue. In case you couldn't tell. You?"

"It's actually a tie between green and blue."

"You can't have two favorite colors," Garrus said, sounding like he was complaining a little.

"Sure I can. I'm the most powerful biotic in the galaxy. I can do whatever I want," she grinned.

"Now who's being modest," Garrus smiled.

Amalia laughed. "I'm going to go out on a limb here and say you."

"Wrong. I think you need to look up the meaning of modest. I'll get you a dictionary the next time we have shore leave on the Citadel," he said in an impatient sounding tone.

Amalia's grin only broadened. "You're going to spend your stripper retirement money on me? That makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Thank you."

"Don't thank me yet," Garrus warned. "I'm going to make sure that you read that entire dictionary so that we can have an adult conversation."

"What are you talking about? First of all, I never said I was an adult. Second of all, I never agreed to have another conversation with you," she stated with a smirk.

"Well, first of all," Garrus said, mocking her listing technique as he counted on his fingers, "I know you're not an adult. You certainly don't act like it. I was just trying to make you a better person."

"'You certainly don't act like an adult' said the turian who claims to be a retired pole dancer," Amalia laughed.

"Second of all," Garrus continued, ignoring that last statement. Suddenly he threw his hands up in the air as a sign of exasperation. "I've been wasting my time talking to you. I thought that we were required to have another conversation due to etiquette requirements. Thank you for opening my eyes to a whole new world filled with people who refuse to talk to one another simply because they don't have to."

"Your welcome. It seems my work here is done," Amalia smirked, executing a bow. She turned to began to turn to head back to Garrus stopped her.

"Wait. Do you even know where you're going or are you just going to keep wandering the ship aimlessly," he asked.

"Actually this was the only place I hadn't seen. Now that I've seen everything, I was just going to hang out in the kitchen or something."

"Saving the best for last?"

"Pretty much."

"Well, since you don't seem to have anywhere to go, do you want me to show you your room?"

"I get my own room? I just assumed I was staying in the crew's quarters," she said, surprised.

"No. The people who actually accompany Shepard on missions into the field get their own rooms, if they want them. You can still stay in the crew's quarters if you want," Garrus offered.

Amalia laughed slightly. "No thanks. I'll be perfectly fine with my own room."

"Well then let me show you where it is," Garrus said, setting down the omni wrench on a nearby storage container.

"What happened to no more conversations," she asked in an amused tone.

Garrus didn't look at her as the two of them entered the elevator and he punched the button to take them to the crew deck. "I'm not having a conversation. I'm just taking you to your room to get out of my way so I could get some work done."

Amalia smiled inwardly. _Right._

The elevator doors opened and Amalia followed Garrus as he led the way down a short hallway and stopped in front of the door at the end of the hallway. He punched a few buttons on the green keypad and the door slid open.

"Does this mean you know the code to get into my room because that's not creepy," she said with an eyebrow cocked questioningly.

"Calm down. It's just to unlock the door for use. You can still lock the door from the inside. Besides, I'm not into humans so I would have no reason to look," he said calmly.

"We'll see if you can resist a few weeks of my irresistible charm first," she smiled.

She stepped inside and took a look around at her new room. The bed was neatly made up against the left wall, with white sheets and pillows. A desk was placed against the right wall, already equipped with a computer and light. There was closet in the far right corner, but Amalia wasn't sure how much she would even use it. The remaining area of the far wall was just a massive window that looked out onto the empty void of space. Upon further inspection of the room, Amalia took notice that her duffel bag was sitting on the ground next to her desk. She allowed herself an inward sigh of relief. She had thought she lost it.

Amalia stepped further inside, still looking around in awe at the high quality room she had been given. When she turned, she saw Garrus leaned up against the doorway. "So I'm going to go ahead and guess you like the room?"

She nodded. "I've never had a room this nice," the dark haired woman stated in wonder.

"Well then I'll leave you to enjoy it." Garrus pushed away from the doorway and began to head back out into the hallway.

"Wait, Garrus," Amalia called. The turian stopped and turned to look at her, surprise evident on his features. "Thanks for the help."

"No problem," he said in a gentle tone. "Let me know if you need anything."

Amalia smirked and cocked an eyebrow. "Anything?"

Garrus sighed. "Goodbye, Amalia." And with that, the door hissed shut behind him.


	3. Mercy

8

A/N Thanks so much for reading. Sorry it has taken so long to update. Life has been ridiculously hectic. It has calmed down a little so I hope to update a little more often. Also, just as a side note, I have not played the first game. I am pretty much wiki-ing missions and other details. So if any character, mission, or timeline details are wrong I apologize ahead of time. Also, I'm basing the lay out of the Normandy on the SR2 since I haven't actually seen it {besides in ME2 when it was blowing up}. Anyways, thanks for reading and please give me reviews to let me know how I'm doing!

After Garrus left, Amalia spent the next few hours surfing the extranet, waiting for Shepard to return from his mission on Therum. During this time she looked up a variety of things that centered around their current mission. Amalia looked up Shepard on the extranet. She even found a short vid of him getting awarded his Spectre status. The main topic that she focused on, though, was Saren. She went through every record she could find. Details of past missions, family status, any recent changes in behavior, and above all was his involvement in the Eden Prime Massacre. Every part of Saren's life was analyzed, trying to understand what could have driven a model council Spectre to lead and aid the geth in such a horrific act. Even as she asked herself that question, Amalia was positive she already knew the answer. She would have to wait to tell Shepard, though. At least until she was sure of both the Commander's intentions and having proof of her theory.

Suddenly Joker's voice came on over the Normandy's comm. system. "Shepard and the team have just come back on board. We're preparing to leave. He has also requested that all squad members report to the conference room for a debrief."

Amalia pushed away from her new desk and computer and headed out the door to make her way to the elevator. When she reached it she saw Garrus walk into the elevator. She stepped in behind him and offered a smile. "Hey, Garrus."

The turian glanced at her and simply nodded.

"Oh, what? Are you giving me the silent treatment now?" she smiled, a fake look of utter shock on her features.

Garrus turned to look at her, regarding her with those deep blue eyes. "I was under the impression that I didn't have to talk to you if I didn't want to," was his response.

The smile only broadened. "But why wouldn't you want to talk to me? I'm so terribly interesting. Don't you want to know all my darkest secrets?"

"Not really. Quite frankly, I'm scared about what's inside that head of yours," Garrus said, a smirk evident in his voice.

In an instant, Amalia's expression turned completely serious. "As you should be."

The elevator's occupants turned as they heard the sound of footsteps coming around the corner of the elevator. A second later, Kaidan appeared and walked in to stand beside Amalia. "Hey, guys," he greeted.

Instantly, the smile was back on Amalia's face. "Hey."

Kaidan leaned forward, pressed the button on the elevator to take them to the CIC, and then turned back to the two of them. "So. How much do you guys know about the Prothean expert that Shepard just picked up?"

Amalia shrugged. "I'm just as new here as she is, so I don't know anything."

"Garrus?"

The sniper shrugged as well. "I don't know very much either. All I know is that Shepard wanted to recruit her for his mission. That's all."

The conversation temporarily ended as the elevator doors opened. The three of them proceeded to walk briefly through the CIC to reach the conference room, making sure to avoid any of the crew members that seemed to continually be running around on a very important errand. When they reached the conference room, the door hissed open to admit the two biotics and the turian.

Shepard was already present, still dressed in full body armor. He nodded a slight greeting as they entered and went to take a seat. As Amalia took a seat in between Tali and Kaidan, she noticed a few faces she hadn't seen before.

The first one to grab her attention was definitely the krogan. Easily the biggest one that she had ever seen, Amalia silently hoped that she didn't piss him off. The last thing she wanted to do was make him go into a blood rage and charge.

The krogan was clad in bulky, but efficient, red armor that almost all krogan males wore. A jagged scar arced across the top of the krogan's crimson brow plate and down across one blazing red eye. Instead of taking a seat, the massive krogan leaned up against a wall with his arms crossed, waiting for Shepard to begin.

_That has to be Wrex,_ Amalia silently confirmed before shifting her gaze to another face.

The next individual she noticed was a human woman sitting across from her. She wore armor similar to Shepard's, except that it was highlighted with whites and reds. Long brunette hair was tied neatly back to keep it out of her eyes in the field.

Chocolate brown eyes turned as they noticed the young woman across from her. A slight smile crossed her lips as she waved a small hello. Amalia returned the smile and waved back.

_That must be Ashley Williams._

The last individual that the biotic didn't recognize was a young looking asari sitting at the end of the table nearest to Shepard.

_Liara T'Soni, _Amalia told herself, confirming the asari's identity.

With the beauty that every asari possessed, Liara was truly striking. Her skin was a deep blue, like all asari, but her scalp was a lighter shade of blue. Dotting her cheeks were small dots, almost like she had freckles. Bright blue eyes, that almost seemed to glow like Amalia's when they hit the light, flitted around the room apprehensively. When Amalia's eyes drifted down to her clothes she realized that the young asari was wearing a plain medical uniform. This caused the biotic to wonder if the Prothean expert had even seen a fight before.

The sound of Shepard's voice interrupted her thoughts and silencing the quiet chatter in the room. "As you can see, our mission was a success. We have acquired Dr. T'Soni and she has agreed to help us in any way she can." Shepard gestured to the visibly nervous Liara to try to introduce her.

Even more anxious with all eyes in the room suddenly focused on her, the asari just gave a slight wave before she turned back to Shepard. "I hope I can be of some help," she stated with a small smile. Her voice, Amalia observed, had a natural quality to it that made it appear as if she was whispering or speaking in a very gently, dreamy tone.

Shepard smiled supportively at Liara. "You will be. Don't worry. But for now, I would like your help with interpreting the vision I received from the Prothean beacon that I told you about."

_Vision? Prothean beacon? Clearly, there are still some things that I need to learn about, _Amalia thought to herself.

The doctor nodded vigorously, clearly eager to begin. "Of course. I'll do my best. Please, have a seat." Shepard wordlessly took a seat near Liara while the rest of the squad watched with fascination. Liara gently placed her hands on either side of Shepard's face, her fingers resting on his temples. "Alright. Now, try to relax. You may feel a little uncomfortable but there will be no pain…hopefully," the asari said thoughtfully.

"That's comforting," the commander stated bluntly.

Liara ignored him as she scooted forward on her seat and stared right into his eyes. "Hold still," she said calmly.

All of a sudden, Liara's eyes turned a coal black as she continued to look into Shepard's eyes. The commander's entire body went rigid as every muscle in his body went tense. He didn't appear to be in pain, but Amalia couldn't help but cast a nervous glance around the room. Everyone seemed to be feeling similar.

Tali looked like she was ready to leap to her feet and tear Liara away from the commander. The biotic couldn't help but think that there was another reason behind it, but she decided to ignore it for now. Both Kaidan and Ashley seemed wary of Liara, but were more relaxed about it than Tali. It was probably because of the fact that Liara had said even before she had began that there could be some discomfort. That left Wrex and Garrus. The two of them didn't even seem the slightest bit worried. They simply watched with a cool, detached interest as they waited for it to end.

Then, as quickly as it began, it was over. Liara removed her hands from Shepard's face as her eyes returned to their normal blue. The commander's body relaxed, along with everyone else in the room, as he took a deep breath. "Well, I've certainly not experienced something like that," he simply stated, straightening himself in his seat. It almost sounded like he was out of breath and he appeared to be wavering in his seat.

"Are you alright, Shepard?" Ashley asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he answered, waving it off.

"You'll probably feel a little tired as a side effect," Liara told him.

_That explains why Shepard seems to be a little out of breath and moving more slowly,_ Amalia observed.

"So I've noticed," the commander answered bluntly. "Did you learn anything?"

The asari shook her head. "Nothing really concrete. I'd need to go through some of my research notes to be sure of some of the things I saw. I don't want to waste our time by sending us off in the wrong direction," she explained.

Shepard nodded. "Alright then. Let me know when you find something." The commander gingerly rose from his chair, the interaction with Liara clearly leaving him drained. "Kaidan, would you mind showing the doctor to where she'll be staying?"

Kaidan instantly rose from his chair at the sound of his name. "Of course." He saluted and then escorted Liara from the conference room.

"As for everyone else, you're dismissed," the commander said. With that, he turned and walked from the room.

The remaining squad members rose from their seats and proceeded to walk from the conference room. Amalia found herself walking next Tali as she made her way to the elevator. With a smile, the biotic decided to address what she had noticed earlier. "So, Tali…" The quarian turned to look at her. "Do I detect a small crush on the commander?" she asked in a teasing tone.

Even though her face was covered by a tinted helmet, Amalia was positive that the quarian mechanic was blushing furiously. "What?! What would make you say that?" she managed to squeak.

Amalia's smile only widened at how adorable that response sounded. "I saw the way that you were looking at him in there. You like him."

"I do not! I would never want to be with Shepard! Not that he isn't attractive-which he is- but I still wouldn't want to be with him. It's what's on the inside that matters-but don't take that as meaning that that he has a bad personality. He is kind, smart, caring, hardworking, and understanding. There are many more good qualities about him that I'm just…not going to list right now. So in the end, he's attractive, has a great personality, and really good qualities and I'm not attracted to him in the slightest." Tali took a deep breath as she finished her rant.

Amalia's smile only broadened. "Yeah, yeah. Alright. Sure. I believe you. I'll drop it…for now."

"Amalia…" Tali looked at her as she spoke in an exasperated tone.

The biotic laughed and after a moment the quarian joined in. "Okay. I'll stop. I'm done. I promise."

"Good," Tali sighed. "So what are you going to do now?"

The dark haired woman shrugged. "Probably head back to my room. I was trying to catch up on what I'd missed so that I'm up to date on what our mission is."

"If you want, I could help. I don't really have much to do right now. Engineer Adams can handle it for now," the quarian said.

Another smile flashed across her face. "Sure. That would really help. Thanks."

"Don't mention it."

After that, the two girls headed back to Amalia's room. Amalia continued to look up details on her computer and Tali sat on her bed relaying information about everything. She explained that she hadn't been there on Eden Prime when Shepard had encountered the Prothean beacon. All that she knew had been learned from Kaidan, since he had actually been present. The quarian began by telling her about Eden Prime, and then went to how they recruited Wrex and Garrus. Since Tali was the last one to be recruited, she had to once again refer to what Kaidan had told her. Amalia listened intently to each story, truly amazed at the tenacity of the three of them. Wrex for not stopping until he reached his target and completed his mission; Garrus for ignoring his superior officer's orders that he shouldn't get involved and doing what he believed was right; And Tali for standing up to the infamous Shadow Broker. Amalia was infinitely impressed by the three of them.

After Tali had finished telling Amalia all she knew, she excused herself and left the room. Even though it was technically late at night, Amalia stayed up. She continued to search the extranet. The biotic resumed searching through Saren's history and even began to delve into the geth. After about an hour of searching and no new results, Amalia turned of the computer. She changed into a black, long sleeve shirt and long, gray sweat pants. After that, she pulled back the covers of her bed, climbed in, and was asleep ten minutes later.

Only a few hours later, Amalia woke with a start. Her heart was pounding so hard inside her chest that the biotic thought she could actually hear it. Reaching a hand up to rest on her chest, Amalia found that her body was bathed in a cold sweat. Extending the same hand up to her face she found it was similarly damp, but not just from sweat. She felt cool tears still falling down her face, which she hurriedly wiped away.

Amalia took a deep, shaky breath. _I wonder if the day will ever come when I can finally sleep through the night without nightmares_, she wondered tiredly.

This was far from the first night this had happened. For many years, the biotic had been plagued with horrible nightmares that she never could seem to get rid of. Every night when she went to sleep it was only a few hours later that she would wake in a similar fashion as she had done tonight. With a past like hers, Amalia was surprised she got any sleep at all.

The black haired woman visibly shook herself to try to rid herself of the memories that haunted her. Throwing back the covers, Amalia climbed out of bed and made her way out of her room, down the hall, and into the mess hall.

To simulate the feeling of night, all the lights were either off or dimmed. Only four or five of the Normandy's crew would be awake right now, either patrolling or ensuring that the Normandy stayed on course while the rest of the crew slept.

When she reached the mess hall, the biotic grabbed a cup from one of the cabinets, filled it with water from the faucet, and then went to take a seat at one of the tables. Amalia looked down into her cup and stared blankly down at her reflection.

_Do I always look that tired?_

Suddenly, the memories that plagued her dreams rushed back into her mind like a tsunami. Amalia felt her eyes begin to well up as the sheer amount of memories became almost too much to bear. Burying her face into her hands, her nails digging torturously into her hair, the biotic waited for the memories to pass.

Garrus walked out of the main battery with satisfaction. He had finally managed to increase the accuracy of the guns by a slight percentage. He had stayed up late hoping to finish his calibrations before he finally went to bed. Somehow he found it relaxing to work late. It was very calming.

Deciding to get something to drink before he went back to work to finish calibrating the other gun, Garrus headed to the mess hall. Before he was halfway down the hallway to the mess hall, the turian saw Amalia sitting in one of the chairs at the table.

She clearly hadn't heard him because she didn't even bother to raise her head from her hands. Garrus noticed that her fingers were digging into her head to the point that he thought she might start to bleed. She was bent over, leaning her weight on her elbows. The biotic looked exhausted, but it wasn't just that. There was something else in her body language. She looked…miserable, tortured even.

Carefully, the turian approached. Even when he stood before the other side of the table, Amalia never looked up. "Are you alright?" he asked gently.

Clearly startled, the biotic's head shot straight up. Those strange, glowing blue eyes looked right at Garrus and the turian couldn't help but notice the powerful emotions swimming in them. Despair, depression, anguish, misery. Her eyes just looked tortured and haunted. But in an instant it was gone as a smile appeared on her face.

"Yeah, I'm fine. What are you doing up?" she asked cheerily.

Garrus was inwardly taken aback at how fast she was able to change from the broken woman a second ago to the happy, smiley Amalia that everyone knew. As if it wasn't obvious enough by now, Amalia was definitely hiding something. Instead of addressing it, Garrus decided to ignore it.

_Everyone has their secrets,_ he told himself.

"I was just finishing up some calibrations." The turian jerked a thumb behind him at the main battery. "What are you doing up?"

Amalia eyed him warily as he took a seat across from her, as if gauging what to tell him. Finally, she shrugged. "Bad dreams. I've had them since I was a kid. Makes it hard to sleep."

Garrus nodded slightly, as if in understanding. "About anything in particular?"

Amalia smiled gently. "Not really. Just a mix of bad memories. If you don't mind, I'd rather not talk about it."

"That's fine. I'm not trying to pry," the turian said, putting his hands up in defense. He mentally kicked himself for asking about it even when he told himself he wouldn't.

"Thanks." She took a sip of her water before returning it to rest on the table. "So, I've kind of been wondering…"

Garrus looked at her with a curious expression. "What?"

"Why do you sleep in the main battery? I mean, they must have room in the crew quarters. Why don't you sleep in there?" Her expression was curious as she looked at the turian across from her for an answer.

The turian leaned back in his chair as he considered the question."Well, as you may have noticed, I like to work late. It's somehow…relaxing. By staying in the battery, I can work into the night without having to worry about waking anyone when I eventually do go to bed," Garrus explained.

Amalia nodded her understanding. "That makes sense." Suddenly she started to laugh. "You are such a kind and giving person, Mr. Vakarian."

"I don't see how that's funny," he responded, a smirk in his voice. He was glad to hear her laugh again and he could tell that it was genuine.

The biotic waved her hand in the air as she raised another to stifle her laughter. "Don't worry about it," she smiled.

"Alright then. It's my turn to ask a question," the turian smirked.

"Go right ahead," Amalia said, just now managing to control her laughter.

"Back on Kierlack, when you were in the arena fighting to get free, why didn't you kill the mercs? You had their own guns pointed at their heads. Why didn't you take the shot?" Garrus asked.

The biotic grew somber as she thought the question over. "Because not every one of those mercs was bloodthirsty and evil. If you looked, you would have seen that there were teenagers among them. Kierlack is a very poor planet, Garrus. Those kids probably thought it was an easy and safe way to make some quick cash. I mean, with all the precautions the slavers were taking, they probably never even dreamed that they would have to use their guns."

"But what about the others? A lot of them weren't exactly innocent," Garrus stated.

"But who am I to judge? You're right. Many of the mercs were far from innocent, but it isn't my place to pass judgment on them. Besides, there could have been some innocent looking mercs among them that just had the appearance of being evil. You can't base all your opinions and assumptions on someone's appearance. Knowing that I could never determine the nature of each merc just by looking at them, I let them go," Amalia explained in a solemn tone.

"That makes sense, but at the arena the announcer said that you had killed twenty one men that were trying to capture you. What about them?"

"The first thing you should know about me, Garrus, is that I don't like to kill unnecessarily. I have a…deep respect for all life." Amalia paused for a second, as if recalling something, before she continued. "In this case, none of those slavers were anywhere near innocent. I watched as they butchered any colonists who refused to come willingly. When they finally came for me, one fifth of the colony was dead while the rest were loaded onto the slaver's ships. If they were innocent before they came, they certainly weren't then. So, both in self defense and the defense of the colony, I attacked them."

"But you were still caught," Garrus pointed out. "What was the purpose of killing them if you were just going to let yourself get caught anyways?"

Amalia laughed lightly as she averted her eyes and began to examine her cup. "I guess I lost my temper. Besides, I thought I would be able to free them on my own, but the sheer amount of slavers changed my mind. I mean, I'm good. I'm just not that good," she said.

"As modest as ever, I see," he observed with a smirk.

The biotic brushed a few stray strands of black hair behind her ear as she laughed.

Inwardly, Garrus was glad to see her smiling and laughing again. Her personality was so happy and cheerful that it was contagious to everyone around her. Compared to what he saw on her face when he first walked into the mess hall, Garrus was more than happy that he was able to put that familiar smile back onto her face.

"Thanks, Garrus."

The turian jerked out of his reverie as he looked to see those strange, glowing blue eyes fixed on him. A small, gentle smile played on Amalia's lips as she looked at him.

"For what?" he questioned.

The biotic brushed another stray strand of black hair behind her ear, looking down for a split second at her cup, before returning her gaze to the sniper. "For staying with me. You really don't have any idea how much it helped to just talk with someone."

"Well, if you wanted to make this a regular thing, I wouldn't mind," the turian offered.

A surprised expression crossed the young woman's face. She quickly put her hands up as if to ward away his words. "I couldn't ask you to do that.'

Garrus smiled. "It's alright. I'm awake around this time anyways. I could use the break from my work."

The shocked look was still on Amalia's face as she looked at him, as if trying to discern if he had some sort of ulterior motive. After a moment of silence, the smile returned to her face. "Don't be such a workaholic, Garrus, or you'll get a face full of wrinkles before you know it," she grinned.

Garrus sighed and rubbed his forehead as if he had a headache. "Yeah. Turians don't get that," he explained.

"Oh." Amalia placed a finger thoughtfully on her chin. "Well…do your scales crack or wrinkle in some way to show stress or age?"

The sniper shook his head. "Our scales only crack if we're injured. So if they are cracking, then something else is clearly going on. As for wrinkling, I don't see how you could possibly think that a scale had the capability to wrinkle."

"What about warping? I know that wood does that sometimes," she suggested.

"Okay. Right now, you're describing turian diseases and defects. So why don't I just tell you?"

The finger dropped from her chin and entwined with her other hand on the table. "Alright. Go for it. Blow my mind."

Garrus rolled his eyes but chose not to respond to that last statement. "Our way of showing age, and even stress in some cases, is that our scales start to lighten and gray with time."

"Alright," Amalia said, nodding her understanding. "So then don't be a workaholic or you'll get a face full of gray scales. How was that?"

"Outstanding," the turian replied with a sarcastic sigh.

Amalia laughed once again. "Well," she rose from her chair and proceeded to walk her cup over to the sink. "I'm going to head to bed. I'm probably going to need a little more than a few hours of sleep if I'm going to be of any use to Shepard." The biotic quickly washed, dried, and put away her cup before turning and started heading back to her room. "Goodnight."

"Amalia."

The young biotic stopped and turned around. "What?"

"In the morning, you should go see Chakwas. She may have some sort of sleeping pill or something to help you sleep through the night," Garrus said in a serious tone.

Amalia smiled playfully as she crossed her arms. "Are you trying to get out of our late night talks already?" she teased.

"Just try it," Garrus said, sighing once again. The turian rose from his own seat, still watching her as he waited for an answer.

"Alright, alright. I'll try it. I sincerely doubt that she has anything that I haven't tried already, though," the biotic stated bluntly.

"You may be surprised."

"Maybe."

"Well, goodnight."

"Yeah. Goodnight."

With that, the two of them returned to their rooms. That night, for the first time in years, Amalia found that she was able to sleep all the way through the rest of the night.


	4. Explosions

8

A/N: Just a heads up for whoever is reading this, Garrus and Amalia will not be getting together in Sweet Dreams of Sanctuary. The goal for this was just to set up a strong friendship between the two of them and the rest of the crew before moving on. There will be friendship fluff, but just no romance fluff. Sorry to disappoint. Believe me, I'm just as excited to get to their relationship as you are. ANYWAYS, sorry for the long authors note. Please give me some wondrous reviews and thanks for reading!

In what was determined to be "morning" aboard the Normandy, Amalia woke from her deep sleep. She lay there for a long time, just staring at the ceiling, still marveling at where she was and what she was doing. Snapping herself out of her brief reverie, Amalia threw back the covers on her bed. The biotic flinched as her bare feet touched the cool metal floor. Bending over, the young woman reached under her bed until she found her duffel bag, which she proceeded to drag out and start to rifle through. Pushing aside the large amount of objects she had in there, Amalia eventually pulled out a change of clothes. Dark jeans, a long sleeve navy blue v-neck shirt, a black jacket, and a pair of socks. Hurriedly she stripped off her pajamas and slipped into her new clothes. When she had finished, she quickly ran a brush through her hair and threw it up in a messy ponytail. Grabbing a pair of knee high black boots from her bag, the biotic quickly threw them on. She then left her room, headed into the bathroom, brushed her teeth, and then headed back. To complete her morning routine, Amalia sat down onto the floor and began to go through a series of stretches.

_It pays to be ready for anything,_ she told herself.

Amalia was definitely more flexible than the average person. Just by watching her, you could clearly see that she must have gone through extensive training just to get to this point.

When she was satisfied, the biotic climbed to her feet and began to head to the med bay. She had told Garrus that she would at least see what Chakwas had in the way of sleeping pills or some such to help her sleep through the night.

After walking down the hallway, Amalia walked through the door. Chakwas was sitting and her desk, typing something into her computer. For a split second, Amalia thought she was alone but then the biotic noticed that Liara was standing by a terminal holding a datapad. The asari seemed so wrapped up in what she was doing that the young biotic doubted that she even knew someone had just entered. Doctor Chakwas on the other hand turned in her chair to see who it was and smiled when she saw Amalia.

"Ah, Amalia. It's good to see you. Are you feeling alright?" Chakwas asked with a both friendly and worried expression.

The biotic laughed a little. "Do people really only come to talk to you when they're hurt or need something?"

The doctor nodded. "Typically. Shepard does stop in once in a while though and Joker comes by regularly, though, only so he can take his meds."

"Alright then. I'm going to start visiting you regularly as well. No strings attached," she smiled.

Chakwas laughed. "I'd like that. But as for now, I'm guessing that you needed something," the doctor said with a smile.

Amalia smiled back sheepishly. "Umm, yes. I was wondering if you had any kind of extra strength sleeping pill or something."

Chakwas rose from her seat as she headed over to the cabinets on the other side of the room. "You're having trouble sleeping?"

"Yeah."

"Any reason in particular? Aching muscles? Can't get your mind to turn off?"

Amalia shook her head, though she doubted Chakwas saw her since the doctor had her back to her as she searched through the cabinets.

"Uh, no. It's actually nightmares. I just have trouble staying asleep," she said finally.

The doctor stopped what she was doing and turned around to look at her. "Nightmares?"

Amalia nodded.

"I hope you don't take offense to this but sometimes talking it out with someone helps," Chakwas offered.

The biotic stopped as the memory of Garrus sitting with her in the mess hall last night flashed through her mind. Instead, the young woman flashed a smile across her face. "That's alright. I've…kind of tried that tactic already. If anything, it made it worse."

"Alright," Chakwas said slowly. The doctor turned around and resumed sifting through her medicines.

Amalia waited patiently by Chakwas' desk. Her eyes began to wander around the room, taking in all the advanced technology hanging from the ceiling over the beds. While her eyes scanned the room, Amalia noticed that Liara was looking at her. The biotic smiled gently at her. "Hello," she said.

The asari smiled back. "Hello."

"What are you working on?" she asked, making an attempt at a conversation.

"I was just searching through my research notes for anything that will help me better interpret Shepard's vision," she explained.

"Find anything useful?"

"A few things, nothing much, yet. It's just there's so much to go through…," she said. The asari gestured behind her, to one of the empty beds, and Amalia saw a stack of assorted datapads, papers, folders, and binders.

"If you want, I could help you," Amalia offered with a gentle smile.

Liara looked at her, genuinely shocked. "Really?" she asked with incredulity.

"Sure. I don't see why not," the biotic responded.

"Well," Liara began. "Do you know anything about the Protheans?"

Amalia considered the question carefully before answer. "To be perfectly honest, very little. But I've always been interested to hear more about them."

"Really?" This seemed to catch her by surprise. If Amalia had to venture a guess, she would say that not many people, outside of the field, were interested in the Protheans.

"Really. You'd probably have to teach me a little more about them before I could really help, though," the biotic stated.

This seemed to brighten the asari's entire day as Amalia watched Liara's face light up with unbridled joy. "I would love to," she declared happily. She looked as if she was about to say something else, but stopped as she saw Chakwas turn around and hand Amalia a small bottle.

"This may help, but I can't say for sure. I want you to try it tonight. Let me know tomorrow whether it worked or not," the older woman said with an authority that only a doctor could possess.

"Thank you." Amalia took the bottle and quickly tucked it into the pocket of her jacket.

Chakwas smiled pleasantly. "Before you go, would have some time to fill out some medical papers?"

The biotic arched an eyebrow. "What for?"

"Well," the doctor began. "We, frankly, know nothing about you. It might be nice to have some of your medical history, any allergies you may have, next of kin…" Chakwas stopped as she noticed Amalia visibly flinch at the last one she listed and looked at her with a concerned expression. "Are you alright?"

The familiar smile spread over Amalia's face. "Of course. Umm…do you think I could do that later? I haven't actually had anything to eat yet?"

Chakwas seemed as if she wanted to pursue the issue, but eventually thought better of it. "Alright. Go ahead. Just make sure you don't forget." With that, the older doctor walked to her desk, sat down, and began to type something on her computer.

The dark haired biotic turned to Liara with a smile. "Do you want to come with?" she asked.

Liara beamed. "Of course."

_She's the new girl, like I am. I might as well help to make her feel more at home on the Normandy. _

Amalia watched as the asari set her datapad on the pile of other research materials behind her. She turned, walked over to Amalia, and the two girls proceeded to walk out the doors and head to the mess hall. Liara excitedly started to chatter about the Protheans, clearly eager to tell her everything she knew. Amalia smiled politely as she listened to Liara. It was obvious that Liara was happy that someone was interested in what she had to say, besides Shepard. The fact that Amalia was listening to her talk so intently only spurred her on, as she started talking about what she thought Prothean civilization was like.

_She has no idea, _Amalia thought to herself as she continued to listen.

Personally, Amalia was amazed how much information Liara was able to tell her by the time they reached the mess hall. Now that they were there, Amalia became momentarily distracted as she observed who was present.

Kaidan and Tali were sitting at one end of the table, having a friendly argument about which omni-tool model was better. Wrex sat alone at the opposite end of the table, picking at something on his plate resembling meat. Garrus sat in the middle of the table, Joker across from him, as the two of them exchanged jokes.

The turian glanced up, his deep blue eyes connecting with hers. Amalia found herself wondering what he was thinking as he looked at her. Then, as quickly as it had begun, it ended as Garrus returned to Joker. In turn, Amalia looked away as well as she headed into the kitchen area.

Liara followed her, having momentarily stopped her lesson on the Protheans, and began to go through the fridge and cabinets. Eventually, she found something in one of the cabinets and poured it into a bowl. When Amalia glanced at it, she realized that it was some sort of cereal. The asari finished it and set the box aside, which Amalia grabbed and quickly began to pour herself a bowl. When the two girls had their breakfast, they went to the table to grab a seat. Amalia chose a seat next to Tali and Liara sat down next to her, with Joker directly next to her on her left.

Joker seemed to notice them for the first time as they sat down as he turned in his seat to look at them, a cup of coffee clutched in his hands. "Hey, it's the newbies," he greeted with a slight smile.

"Hey, it's the smart ass pilot," Amalia responded with a sarcastic tone.

Joker put a look of mock hurt on his face as he looked at her over Liara. "You can't possibly mean that. I'm too witty and fun to be a smart ass," he said.

Amalia crossed her arms and laid them gently on the table as she regarded him. She took a long moment to look him up and down before she answered. "No…no, you definitely have the look of a smart ass."

"Ouch. That hurts. Well, at least I have the Normandy. She always listens to me."

The biotic arched an eyebrow. "Really? Because I feel as if she were being slightly neglected right now."

"Well, I can't be with her all the time. I'm not a workaholic," he said in a complaining tone.

"That much is clear. All you do is sit around and push buttons," she said with a smile, intentionally goading him on.

"There's an art to it. Not just anyone can do what I do. I'm the best pilot in the Alliance," he bragged proudly.

"Really?"

"Really."

"Well then, Mr. Best Pilot in the Alliance, who's flying the ship right now?" Amalia asked smugly.

A look of mock horror crossed Joker's face as he exclaimed, "Oh shit!" He quickly got to his feet and began to hurriedly hobble to the elevator without so much as a backwards glance.

"What was that about?" she heard Kaidan ask, his little argument with Tali forgotten at the moment.

Amalia shrugged and returned to eating her cereal. "Just being a smart ass. That's all."

"Okay, fine then. What's your favorite color?" Amalia asked.

"Seriously? That's the best question you can come up with?" Kaidan asked with incredulity.

"It's a good question," Amalia refuted.

"It's too common," Kaidan said in response, crossing his arms.

"Just answer the question. It's not that hard," she said stubbornly, crossing her arms as well.

Kaidan sighed. "Fine. Purple."

"Purple? Isn't that considered a feminine color?" Garrus asked, taking a sip of whatever was in his cup.

"No-well, yes, but I don't see why I can't like it. Women shouldn't get a claim on certainly colors while men don't."

"Yes you do," Amalia shouted with a wide grin on her face. "You have black. That's considered a manly color. Gray and brown, too."

"Oh, joy. We get all the bland colors," Kaidan said with mock joy. "Men are allowed to like purple, I don't think that it is a strictly feminine color."

"Yeah. Go team purple," Tali smiled as she high-fived Kaidan.

Amalia couldn't help but smile at the human gesture. "Well then," the biotic's eyes found Garrus'. "Garrus and I will be on team blue."

"Not so fast," the turian said calmly. "As I recall, your favorite color was also green. I don't let double agents onto my team."

"Double agent?" Amalia made a coughing laugh in response. "I'm not a double agent. Besides, who said it was your team?"

"I don't make the rules. Either your favorite color is green or it's blue. So which is it?" Amalia opened her mouth to answer but Garrus seemed to anticipate her response as he raised a gloved hand to stop her. "And don't say that 'I'm the most powerful biotic in the galaxy. I can do whatever I want.'"

This earned a choking laugh from Kaidan and Tali. Amalia paused, her mouth open, as she tried to search for something to say in response. This only made the male biotic and quarian girl laugh harder. "Oh, Keelah, Amalia! I don't think I've ever seen you at a loss for words," she laughed.

Amalia's face was hard as she looked at Garrus, still trying to think of a response. "Give me a second," she said, waving for Tali and Kaidan to calm down. The way that Garrus was looking at her infuriated her. Everything about him was calm and composed, as always, but in his eyes Amalia could see his eyes dancing. He was enjoying watching her squirm, at a complete loss for words.

In an instant, the biotic reached over and wrapped an arm around the asari next to her. "Liara will be on team green then, won't she? You'll have to be by yourself then," she declared with a triumphant smile.

"No, not quite. Liara hasn't even said what her favorite color is yet," Garrus said, a smirk evident in his voice.

"Well then," Amalia turned her gaze to Liara, who in turn looked around shyly as all eyes turned to her. "What is your favorite color?"

"Sorry, Amalia. It's blue," she said sheepishly.

Garrus began to laugh victoriously while Amalia's jaw dropped. "You're lying. You wouldn't ally yourself with this…tyrant," the biotic said in disbelief.

This earned a coughing laugh from Garrus. "Tyrant? Who are you calling a tyrant?"

Amalia ignored him. "I didn't think asari could even like the color blue. I mean, the see it all the time. You'd think they would get sick of it. No offense."

Liara smiled sweetly. "We don't get sick of it anymore than you do if you look at the color of your skin. We are capable of liking it."

"And that," the turian began, "is closure. Today marks the beginning of the tyrannical rain of Garrus Vakarian, the best sniper in the galaxy."

"Wait! What about Wrex?" The young woman cast a look down the table at the massive krogan who was still eating his food in silence.

Garrus followed her gaze, looked at him for a brief moment, before turning his eyes back to hers. "Well…I get the feeling that he's on team red and doesn't exactly need or want anyone else on his team."

"Damn straight," came the deep baritone reply from the bounty hunter.

"See," Garrus said without missing a beat, not looking at Wrex.

"What about Ashley?"

"My tyrannical senses tell me that she's on team blue as well," Garrus said in that strangely calm voice and yet it always seemed to contain a hint of a smirk.

Amalia was about to open her mouth to say something back, but the sound of Joker's voice over the comm. system silenced her. "Okay. We appear to have just found a Cerberus base that needs blowing up. Garrus. Amalia. Meet Shepard at the shuttle ASAP." Without another word, the comm. turned off.

Garrus was the first to stand and Amalia followed soon after. Without saying a word to one another, they headed towards the elevator to meet Shepard. As they were leaving, Amalia thought she heard Kaidan mumble, "That was the most intense discussion about favorite colors I think I've ever heard."

The shuttle down to the planet where the base was smooth; no real jostling or loud bangs. That was a good sign, wasn't it? That meant Cerberus either didn't know they were here yet or didn't have the weapons required to shoot down a shuttle. The shuttle's interior was silent, the three of them not contributing anything in the way of conversation. Shepard was focused on something that was on his omni-tool. Garrus' expression looked bored, but Amalia could see from the grip on his rifle that that wasn't the case. Amalia just focused on trying to keep her nerves calm.

She had never actually been in a true fight with allies aiding her. She had always been on her own. Now, as she sat there looking at Garrus and Shepard, she wondered what it would be like. How it would be different. Sudden panic rose in her chest. What if she hurt them on accident with her biotics? Like she said, she wasn't used to having to watch out for others.

The biotic sighed and reached up a hand to massage her temple as if she had a headache. _So much for trying to keep my nerves calm._

Garrus ducked behind a storage container, narrowly missing a bullet in his chest from a few Cerberus soldiers at the end of the hallway. The small squad from the Normandy had invaded the Cerberus base about ten minutes ago. Immediately, the soldiers guarding the facility had leapt on the defensive. Not that it had done them much good.

Amalia never even gave them the chance to use their guns against them. Her biotics flared to life and ripped the guns from their hands, tossing them harmlessly aside. Then, her biotics formed something reminiscent of a wave and slammed into the soldiers, knocking them unconscious.

After watching her do this, the turian couldn't help but remember her words to him that night in the mess hall. _The first thing you should know about me, Garrus, is that I don't like to kill unnecessarily. I have a…deep respect for all life_, she had said. Garrus couldn't help but feel respect for her. She wouldn't kill them if she couldn't help it. She wouldn't kill them when they were unarmed.

Shepard led the way as they made their way into the facility. When they walked in, they found themselves in a long hallway lined with storage crates. It was lucky for them that they were there, since it provided them with more than adequate cover. This was where they were now, pinned down by several Cerberus soldiers down the hall.

The turian glanced at his squad mates. Shepard was taking shelter behind a crate just ahead of Garrus. The commander leaned out of his cover for just a second, fired a few rounds with his assault rifle, and ducked back down again. A few of the bullets hit home, knocking back two soldiers until they fell to the ground, lifeless. Shepard always was a good shot, but he couldn't even begin to compete with Garrus. As if to prove his point to himself, the turian brought up his sniper rifle and shot three soldiers in quick succession, all with perfect headshots.

The three squad mates all stood up carefully, Garrus noticing now that Amalia had been taking refuge behind a storage container on the right side of the hallway ahead of him. They were sure that they had taken out the soldiers, but it didn't hurt to be cautious. They paused for several long seconds, waiting for any sign of movement. When nothing happened, Garrus saw Amalia shrug and start to head around a tall stack of crates in front of her.

Suddenly, a single Cerberus soldier shot out from behind the stack of crates and leaped at Amalia. Both Shepard and Garrus brought up their weapons, but it was too late. The soldier locked himself with Amalia, one arm reaching around her waist to pin her arms at her side, the other reaching up to grab her throat and squeeze. He was hiding behind her, using her body to shield himself from the other two members of the squad. It didn't matter if he had his back to them, neither the commander or the turian could risk taking the shot without fear of hitting Amalia too. They both started forward to help, but stopped.

Abruptly, Amalia broke free from the soldier and was moving so fast that Garrus couldn't even keep track of everything she did. She escaped from the soldier's grasp and kicked him backwards. The soldier started forward and lunged at her again, but this time she was ready for him. With a flurry of kicks and punches, the soldier was knocked to the ground and did not move again. She stood there for a long time, her chest heaving, as she stared down at the soldier before her.

"Where the hell did you learn to do that?" Shepard asked in disbelief.

Amalia turned to look at him, her long black ponytail swishing to the side. She smiled lightly, still breathing hard from the effort. "Oh, you know. Around. You pick things up when you travel as much as I do," she said. Saying nothing else, she turned and began to head down the hallway.

After a moments hesitation, both Garrus and Shepard followed her. Garrus watched her for what seemed like a long time as they walked. _She's not telling us everything. I know military training when I see it and yet…she used moves I've never seen before. She probably is telling the truth about picking moves up as she traveled but there is definitely more to it than that._

The mysteries surrounding Amalia only seemed to grow in size as they made their way through the facility, fighting through ranks of Cerberus soldiers as they went. The turian sniper's visor had the capability to detect and measure biotic fields. As he watched her fight, he realized that she wasn't even trying. He saw her fling five soldiers across a room as if it were nothing and didn't even seem the least bit tired. Garrus didn't claim to know very much about biotics, but he knew enough to know that even the strongest biotics could have trouble doing something like that. When he used his visor to measure her biotic field, he realized that she wasn't even using her full biotic potential. She was only using a small fraction of, what Garrus now realized, her immense biotic power. The turian couldn't help but wonder with mild curiosity what it would look like to see Amalia bring the full power of her biotics to bear.

After several more fights and many empty rooms, the squad proceeded to take away the surviving Cerberus soldiers to secure them for trial. When they were getting ready to leave, they found one of the few labs that was actually in use at this facility. It was filled with several dead bodies that looked as if they had been brutally tortured before death finally released them.

_Prisoners of some sort_, Garrus observed. _They must have done something to piss Cerberus off. Then again, Cerberus thought they were above the law and could do whatever they wished. Maybe these people were completely innocent. _As Garrus looked at them, he couldn't help but feel anger rising up in his chest. Every single one of the dead prisoners was an alien. The turian looked away in disgust and found himself looking at Amalia.

The biotic stood stone-faced, looking down at the dead bodies as if she might be sick. The sniper glanced down at her hands and saw that they were balled into fists, quivering with rage. At seeing this, the turian couldn't help but wonder if she was second guessing her decision to let any of the Cerberus soldiers live.

With a signal from Shepard, the squad left to head for the shuttle. Shepard had been in the heart of the facility, planting a bomb so that nothing could be salvaged and used. It was the least they could do for those dead prisoners. When they were safely out of range, Shepard pressed the trigger. For a split second nothing happened, but then a deafening explosion could be heard, the sheer force of it rocking the shuttle. A second later, there was nothing but the sound of the shuttle making its way back to the Normandy.

Garrus found himself looking at Amalia, wondering once again where she had learned to fight like that. Not to mention the fact that she was a stronger biotic than she had led them to believe. There was also the fact that she never seemed to fully answer a question when asked. She would just give a vague answer and move on. The turian couldn't help but question if her life was much more lively than she had previously left them to believe.


	5. The Mark of a Warrior

6

Two weeks. It had really been two weeks since Amalia had first come on board the Normandy? The time seemed to fly by so fast that she didn't even realize it how long it had been.

The biotic lay on the bed in her room as she found herself looking back on her time aboard the Normandy so far. She twirled her long black hair in between her pale fingers as she her thoughts strayed.

The first person that popped into her mind was Tali. The young quarian and the biotic were becoming fast friends. They loved to hang out together and would do it as much as they could. When Tali had work to do, Amalia would go down to engineering to see her. Amalia would converse with her while she worked, even asking the occasional question. She sometimes felt as if she was being a nuisance, but Tali seemed happy to answer whatever questions she had. The quarian seemed eager to share her interests with the biotic. It was also a nice way to deter Amalia from asking any more questions about Shepard and her crush. Tali liked to pretend there were no feelings, but Amalia knew better. She saw the way Tali looked at him.

Engineer Adams was always down in engineering anytime Amalia was visiting Tali. At first, the gruff engineer seemed annoyed by her presence, but Amalia later learned that wasn't the case. In fact, Adams appeared to have taken a liking to her, as he often participated in their conversations. He even answered a few of the biotic's questions. As she was with Tali, Amalia was concerned that she was nothing more than an annoyance. In reality, it was the opposite. If anything, Engineer Adams seemed pleased, even impressed, the she even took an interest in how the Normandy was run. Quickly, Amalia took a liking to the engineer and found herself going down to engineering as much to visit him as to see Tali.

Amalia also made time to go to the med bay to visit Doctor Chakwas, as she had told her she would. At least once a day, the biotic would go to the crew deck to just check in. The doctor and she would discuss things ranging from Chakwas' past stations to how to make sure Joker remembered to take his medicine. The biotic's suggestion involved a black sharpie and a lot of post-it-notes. This seemed to amuse the doctor to no end.

In one of her first visits, the older woman had made sure that Amalia had filled out some medical paper work, as she had said she would. It only took a few minutes to fill out, seeing as how she didn't fill every blank. She didn't see why they needed all her information so she just gave them the bare necessities: Her full name, allergies (none), next of kin (none), prior illnesses or diseases (none). When she handed the papers back to Chakwas, the doctor seemed as if she wanted to ask why Amalia had no next of kin, but apparently thought better of it. Instead, she simply filed away the papers on her desk for future use. Inwardly, Amalia was infinitely grateful that Chakwas had respected her privacy and not asked.

Liara was usually in the med bay when Amalia went to visit Doctor Chakwas. The biotic had been spending a lot of time with her recently, as she helped the asari sift through her research notes to try to find anything to help her decipher Shepard's vision. Liara would take time to teach Amalia as much as she could, so as to help her know what to look for. The young asari seemed immensely happy to have someone to talk about the Protheans with-well, besides Shepard. Amalia truly was curious to learn more about this ancient species, but it was also a plus to see how happy it made Liara to share her passion with someone else. She truly admired the asari, seeing how she dedicated her entire life to studying them. The biotic couldn't help but to feel impressed. But the Protheans wasn't the only thing that they discussed during their time together. Amalia also made a point of trying to get to know the asari better. She asked her about her mother, Matriarch Benezia, about what it was like growing up on Thessia, and how she had become so interested in the Protheans. Bonds of friendship were quickly between the two of them as they continued to sort through the asari's Prothean notes.

Amalia had run into Ashley a little while after her first mission to destroy the Cerberus base. The two women quickly agreed that they should get to know one another better and made plans to talk later that night after all their work was done. It helped to know to person that would be watching your back out in the field. When they finally met up that night, the two of them talked for what seemed like hours. It truly was amazing how quickly they hit it off. Ashley told her about her career as a soldier, the "Williams family curse", her father, and about her many sisters. She would tell her funny stories about what it was like growing up with so many sisters- all of the antics and arguments they would get into. Amalia took an immediate liking to the female soldier, and found herself seeking her out anytime she just wanted to talk to someone. Ashley's no nonsense attitude made her very easy to talk to. In the two weeks since their little talk, the women became fast friends. The biotic was also strangely struck by their relationship. The way that Ashley interacted with her made her feel like she was talking with one of her younger sisters. Amalia never had an older sister and that was exactly how Ashley acted around her. It was a new interaction for her- not bad- but different. She liked it.

As for Kaidan, the two of them acted as if they had been friends for years. They exchanged stories and tips for biotics whenever they were together. Even though Kaidan tried, Amalia was usually the one giving most of the biotics tips. The male biotic tried to give her some pointers, but everything that he told her was something she already knew. Amalia smiled to herself as she continued playing with her long black hair, wrapping it around her fingers to make curls. The two of them were always seen together walking through the halls of the Normandy, poking and prodding each other in much the same way that a brother and sister would. They knew just how to push one another's buttons and at the same time knew just what to say to make the other laugh. In a sense, Kaidan felt to be her brother.

Amalia's chest tightened as a memory started to form in her mind, but she quickly forced it away before she could relive it.

The biotic had also spent a lot of time in the CIC, setting aside specifically intended to annoy Joker while he worked. He liked to say that what he was doing was delicate work, but Amalia knew better. He only had to push the occasional button and make sure they didn't crash into a planet or an asteroid or something of the like. She would sit in one of the empty seats next Joker, exchanging sarcastic comments as he admired the view from the cockpit. She loved watching the stars twinkle and move as they raced through space. She enjoyed it when they passed the occasional planet, and would quickly ask Joker information about it. He would make a few comments, but would answer any questions she had when he was done. Being around Joker certainly wasn't dull.

Pressley was normally wandering around the CIC, always seeming to keep himself busy. Amalia tried to make conversation with him on a few occasions and, for once, he obliged her by engaging in small talk. As she talked with him, she quickly noticed his disgust for aliens. It was obvious that he thought Shepard had polluted the ship by bringing them on board. Amalia scowled at the memory. She had been close to punching him right there in the CIC when, luckily, Shepard had come by and swiftly reprimanded Pressley for his comments. Amalia was glad at least to see that Shepard didn't tolerate that kind of talk aboard the Normandy.

She hadn't really seen that much of Shepard since her last mission to the Cerberus base. The commander had kept himself busy with trying to track down Saren and determine his next move. The biotic had only exchanged a few pleasantries with him when they passed one another in the hallway. Otherwise, that was the only interaction they had had since then. Other members of the Normandy crew had said how Shepard had set aside time in his schedule for getting to know his crew. So far he had stopped by to see everyone. Almost everyone. So far, Shepard hadn't been to see her. Amalia knew he was busy, but yet had mixed feelings about the fact that he hadn't been to see her yet. She felt slightly upset at the fact that he had seen everyone but her, even Liara who had been here a shorter time than her. Still, even if Shepard did come to see her, what would she tell him? She wasn't going to spill all her darkest secrets to him, and she didn't really like talking about her past. It wasn't something she could quite handle talking about.

Amalia physically squeezed her eyes shut as she tried to block out the flood of memories that crashed over her, threatening to drown her. After a couple of minutes, the biotic took a few steadying breaths and regained her composure. Once again, her thoughts started to stray.

She hadn't had much interaction with Wrex since coming aboard. Truth be told, she wasn't entirely sure how to approach the massive krogan. And even if she did get up the courage, what would she say? "Sorry about the genophage?" Amalia inwardly cringed as she pictured the bounty hunter's reaction. So far, she was content to leave him alone so he left her alone. From what she could tell, Shepard and Garrus were the only ones who really conversed with the krogan, not appearing intimidated in the least. Talking with Shepard, Amalia could understand. But Garrus? Didn't krogan generally hate all turians for inflicting the genophage? But yet, in the few times the biotic had witnessed them talking, she noticed how Wrex actually seemed to be friendly, in his own rough way, as he and Garrus exchanged jokes and playful banter. On more than one occasion, Amalia had almost gone over to introduce herself, but stopped as she once again tried to think of what she would even say to him. She guessed she would just have to wait and see if anything presented itself.

Amalia smiled to herself.

And then there was Garrus. The turian had rapidly become Amalia's closest friends. During the day, Amalia and Garrus would poke and prod each other for reactions, much to the enjoyment of whoever was present at that time. Then, every night, Amalia would wake from her usual fit of nightmares and head into the mess hall. Garrus was always there, either working on something at the table or simply enjoying a late night drink. The two of them would sit there and just talk to each other late into the night. The topics ranged from the antics of the other crew members, past missions, and the current mission with Saren and the Reapers. Amalia found it so easy to talk to Garrus, as if she could tell him anything. But she didn't. Her past was strictly off limits, and, luckily, Garrus seemed to pick up on that and didn't ask. This midnight talk became a ritual for the two of them as they met up each night to discuss the day's events. Amalia actually found herself looking forward to when she and Garrus were able to talk to one another. Maybe it was the fact that they were alone or the fact that they spent more time together than with anyone else, but Garrus was fast becoming Amalia's closest friend.

Snapping out of her long reverie, Amalia raised herself off her bed. Kneeling on the ground, she reached under her bed. She grabbed the strap of her duffel bag and pulled it out before her. Even though it had been two weeks, Amalia still hadn't unpacked her bag or made use of the closet in her room. Guess it was only natural. She was used to moving around so it made sense to keep all her things packed and in one place. You never know when you have to move again. Rifling through the bag, Amalia eventually pulled out a pair of gray, sweat shorts and an army green tank top. All her other long sleeved shirts and sweat pants were dirty at the moment, so she had to resort to wearing this. Rising to her feet, Amalia laid the clean clothes and stripped out of the ones she was wearing, shoving them into her bag.

As she did so, she couldn't help but be reminded of why it was that she always wore long sleeved shirts and pants. Lacing up and down her entire body was a network of scars. Some were very faint, either fading with age or only having been a minor injury. There were others though. Some marred her skin, disrupting the smooth pale skin. There was a particular one on her left shoulder blade that looked like a deep scratch from pair of talons or claws. Another on the outside of her right upper thigh looked like what was left from a severe burn. As Amalia looked down at herself, she couldn't help but feel disgusted by her scars. Every single one was a reminder of something she did wrong. Covering them up made her life bearable.

She finished changing into her new pajamas, grabbed a spare towel from the empty closet in her room, and headed out into the hallway, making her way to the women's bathroom. The biotic preferred to take showers late at night, after mostly everyone was asleep. It just made it easier that way. If anyone saw her scars, they would ask. She wasn't sure she could handle the explanation.

Stepping into the bathroom, Amalia briefly verified that it was indeed empty. The door hissed shut behind her. The biotic, once again, stripped from her clothes, setting them on the ground just below the counter along with her towel, and stepped into the shower. At each nozzle, the occupant had the option of creating a hologram around themselves if they felt self conscious about their body and didn't want anyone to see them. Since she was the only one in the shower this late, Amalia didn't see the need. Instead, she simply put up the wall that separated the shower area from the rest of the bathroom, giving herself some privacy.

Amalia punched a series button just below the shower and immediately warm water began to pour from the nozzle, washing over the biotic. A little below those buttons was a timer. Everyone had a limit of a fifteen minute shower. Any longer, and they would have to stop a lot more often to refill the water tank. This way ensured that there was enough water to go around for a longer period of time. So how did they stop people from simply hitting the button again? It was easy. Everyone was given a certain ID number. You typed it into the key pad and it would give you water for your shower. Everyone was limited to one shower a day, so you had to pick when you wanted to take it. And Amalia always took hers late at night, the same time every night.

The dark haired woman leaned her head back as she let the water hit her face. She breathed in deep, loving the feeling of the steam around her. She felt as if she could lose herself in the water and the feel of the steam. It felt as if years worth of stress was just flowing off her body with the water. But yet, every shower felt that way and it was always just a temporary feeling. Before her shower could end, Amalia quickly grabbed a bottle of shampoo that she had snatched from her bag and began to wash her hair. It was scented with something like lilies or roses or something. Amalia never really cared about the scent. All it had to do was clean her hair.

When she was done, the biotic turned off the shower with a few minutes to spare and set about drying herself off. She wrung her hair, trying to get as much water out as possible. She changed back into her pajamas and hurriedly started to tie her hair up into her ever present ponytail.

Amalia always felt as if she had to be prepared for anything. So keeping her hair back and out of her face ensured that she would have full visibility in case of some sort of attack. Even here on the Normandy, where she knew she didn't have to worry about an impending battle, Amalia never forgot what years of experience had taught her. Now it was all second nature to her and she did it without thinking.

She had forgotten to bring a brush with her so she settled for a very messy one ponytail. Throwing the towel over her shoulder, Amalia walked out into the hall. She was taken completely by surprise when she nearly ran into Garrus. She looked up at the tall turian with a brief, undisguised shock. Then, in an instant, she recovered, a playful smile on her face. "Hey. What are you doing?" she asked.

Garrus seemed to be taking a moment to take in her pajamas along with her damp hair before he answered a second later. "Kaidan's omni-tool was malfunctioning again. He asked me to deliver it as soon as it was fixed. Even if he was sleeping," he explained.

Amalia took a moment to notice for the first time that the sniper was even holding something in his hand. Then she returned her glowing blue eyes back to the turian before her, arching an eyebrow as she gave him a quizzical look. "It broke again?" she asked in a mix of disbelief and exasperation. The turian nodded, which earned a sigh from the biotic. "Both Tali and I keep telling him that he should upgrade, but he seems adamant that his older model is better than the newer ones." She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Yeah, well, it would probably save him money in the long run if he just bought a new one. It must cost a lot for all the constant repairs," Garrus remarked.

"No kidding. Is he paying you to fix it?"

"No. I guess he just figured I had nothing better to do with my time," Garrus said, the usual smirk evident in his voice.

Amalia grinned at him. "You poor, unappreciated turian. It must be hell to be as nice as you are."

"You have no idea," he sighed, his voice wavering slightly as he tried not to laugh. His gaze drifted down and Amalia could tell that he had noticed her scars for the first time. His deep blue eyes widen slightly as she scanned her pale skin, seeing all of the pale scars ranging from small scratches, to deep welts, to the large burn on her thigh, and finally to the deep claw mark just visible above her shoulder. He looked back up, his eyes finding hers as he gestured to her. "Where did you get those?"

Amalia smiled sheepishly, crossing her legs nervously and tightening her arms across her chest. She could feel a slight embarrassed blush rising to her cheeks as she forced herself to meet his gaze. "Oh, those? I don't really remember where I got a lot of them. I scar easily and I'm kind of a klutz," she explained. She prayed inwardly that he would buy it.

He didn't, but chose not to say anything. Garrus sighed and started to turn towards the crew quarters. "Alright then. I guess I had better get this to Kaidan. See you later tonight." Without waiting for a response, he turned and walked away, disappearing into the crew quarters when he reached the door.

Amalia's chest tightened slightly as she felt a pang of guilt. She knew Garrus wanted to ask her about it, but knew better than to push her for information she wasn't willing to give away. She was grateful to not only him, but to everyone who had respected her enough to let her past stay a secret. They probably hoped that when she was ready she would tell them. The thing was that Amalia never planned to tell them. First of all, she wasn't even sure if she could handle reliving her past, even in memories, as she told someone else. Second of all, she wasn't sure they would understand. Everyone that she trusted and called her friend could turn on her when they learned the truth. They might even hate her. Amalia inwardly knew that hiding her past was the easiest course of action. There was no way that they would understand. But as Amalia watched Garrus walk away, she still couldn't help but to feel guilty. They told her about themselves, but she didn't. It probably seemed to them as if the relationship was one sided. Amalia couldn't help but silently agree.

She headed back to her room, deep in thought once again. She tossed the wet towel over her desk chair and proceeded to crawl under the covers of her bed. Her head sunk into her soft pillows as she stared up at the ceiling.

Amalia hadn't taken any more of the sleeping pills that Chakwas had given her in one of her first trips to the med bay. The night she took them, everything was worse. Instead of waking up from her nightmares, the pills had kept her asleep and trapped as she relived her nightmares over and over. She had hurriedly returned the pills to Chakwas the next morning, tired and visibly shaken by a night filled with horrors.

Every night after that, she had woken up after a few hours of sleep and gone out to talk to Garrus. He never asked her about the nightmares, for which she was grateful. Garrus just seemed to content to talk to her, though Amalia truly wondered if he realized the extent to which those talks helped her. They aided in distracting not only from the nightmares, but also from the horrors that they encountered on their missions. That was something that she was more than grateful for.

As Amalia's eyelids closed over her unusual glowing blue eyes, her last thoughts were of how she knew she would be awake in another few hours and be talking with Garrus as they did every night.

A/N: Thanks sooooo much to SweetArwen for the very nice reviews. Despite my busy schedule, your reviews made me feel so good that I wrote this chapter at the first available opportunity. Everyone else who reads this should give me some reviews so that I have more than one opinion on how I'm doing.

It may be at least a few weeks before I update again because my sister's bachelorette party and wedding are coming up very soon and I'm the maid of honor. That's partially why I've been unable to update very much this summer. I hope that after the wedding is over, I will post, at least, two chapters a week. Fingers crossed!

PLEASE give me some reviews!


	6. A Plague of Pyjaks

7

A/N: I'm SOOOOOO SORRY for the long wait! When I told you it would be a little while before I updated, I never meant for it to take this long. So, in my guilt ridden state, I have written one more chapter and have already started writing the next four as an apology. I hope to have them posted within two weeks.

Let me also take a moment to thank the people who gave me reviews and welcome the new followers. I hope you become addicted to this story! Fingers crossed. As always please give me some reviews to let me know how I'm doing.

Amalia followed just behind Shepard as they exited the shuttle. They emerged into a warm, almost tropical, forest planet. The air was filled with the singing of birds, the humming of insects, and the roars of some faraway predator. The biotic took a deep breath, inhaling the sweet smell of the exotic flowers as a breeze blew over her. She glanced to the side to see Kaidan stretching his arms over his head and Tali fiddling with her omni-tool, casting a few fleeting looks at Shepard when he wasn't looking. Amalia smiled inwardly as she looked away, watching the commander as she waited for direction.

Kaidan was the first to break the silence. "So what are we looking for exactly?" he inquired.

The commander, who had been examining his omni-tool, looked up to study the surrounding jungle. "Admiral Hackett told me that the Alliance had a probe out here to gather intel on geth movements in the Attican Beta Cluster. Apparently the probe has gone missing and its last known location was on this planet. We are to find the probe and recover the data module," Shepard informed them.

"Intel on the geth? Then that means that they're more than likely after the module, too?" Tali said, more as a statement of fact than a question.

Shepard nodded in agreement. "But we're going to find it first."

"Great. Do we even know where it is?" Kaidan asked.

"Yeah. Luckily, the probe has a tracker on it." Shepard's omni-tool flared to life once more as he punched an array of different buttons. A second later, a flashing light could be seen on his omni-tool as it, from what Amalia could guess, showed the location of the probe. "It's this way," Shepard said. With that, he marched into the forest, closely followed by his squad mates.

They walked for maybe fifteen minutes, pushing their way through thick ferns and bushes and swatting at the occasional pesky bug before they found the probe. It lay in the middle of a small clearing, sitting on the ground as if someone had carefully placed it there. The probe certainly wasn't what she was expecting. The device was no bigger than a large soccer ball. Truth be told, she thought it would be much larger.

Shepard was the first to step forward and start fiddling around with the probe. Amalia half wondered if he even knew what he was doing. Tali, who seemed to sense the same thing, stepped forward to help him, omni-tool at the ready.

The biotic stood separate from the two of them as she examined the surrounding trees warily. The sound rustle of grass alerted her to Kaidan's presence as he came to stand next to her.

"What is it?" he asked his eyes skimming both the trees and the details of her face, trying to determine what she was thinking.

Amalia shook her head, her long black ponytail swinging back and forth. Her elegant black eyebrows knitted together into a slight scowl. "I'm not sure yet. Something doesn't feel right," she said.

Kaidan nodded in agreement. "Good. I was worried I was the only one who felt it."

A glow of blue drew her eyes to Kaidan as she noticed the familiar blue aura as his biotics flared to life. He looked tense. It was as if whatever feeling that they both had was putting him even further on edge. The female biotic placed a comforting hand on his arm. Kaidan shifted his gaze from the tree line, his dark eyes finding her own bright blue ones. She offered a reassuring smile as she said, "take it easy. Don't waste your energy before the fight even gets here, if there is even one to be had." Kaidan nodded stiffly and the blue aura from his biotics faded. Amalia looked at him with a quizzical look. "You're a soldier, aren't you?"

The male biotic turned to look at her for a moment before answering with a nod. "Why?" he asked, sounding slightly confused.

The dark haired woman shrugged and turned her attention back to the tree line. "Nothing. It's just you would think as a soldier you would be a little more relaxed at the prospect of getting into a fight, you know? Not so on edge," she explained.

It was Kaidan's turn to shrug. "I just like to know what I'm up against. I don't like to feel like I'm being hunted. It's like whatever is out there-" he gestured to the row of trees before them-"It's just waiting. Part of me wishes that whatever it is would just attack. Get it over with."

Amalia nodded in understanding. "I know what you mean. It's worse when it's just on the edge of your vision and you can't see it."

"Exactly," Kaidan agreed. "Besides, how many soldiers do you know that aren't at least a little jumpy before a fight?"

Amalia scoffed. "More than you would think."

Before Kaidan could ask what she meant, Shepard and Tali walked up to them. The two biotics turned at their approach. "Did you get it?" Kaidan inquired.

Shepard's response was to hold up what looked to be a small card shaped device that fit in the palm of his hand.

"Does this mean we're done here?" Amalia asked.

"Yeah. I already radioed Joker. The shuttle is on its way," the commander responded.

"Huh. So this was uneventful," Amalia commented dryly.

"Yeah, that's the problem," Shepard said, shifting on his feet slightly. Amalia wondered inwardly if he had felt the same thing that she and Kaidan had.

"What do you mean?" the male biotic asked.

"The geth should have been all over us by now, or at least taken the module before we got here. It's more than a little unsettling than they haven't shown up yet," Tali explained.

"Maybe we got lucky?" Amalia asked, a hopeful smile on her face.

"I kind of doubt that," Shepard said. "Let's just hope the shuttle gets here before the geth do."

"Fingers crossed," Amalia grinned.

Shepard looked like he was going to say something in response, but before he could the sound of a branch snapping caught his attention. It had come from the direction that Kaidan and Amalia had been watching. Instinctively, the four members of the squad took defensive positions behind the nearest trees they could find. The commander and the quarian shared the same cover behind a thick tree while Kaidan and Amalia both hid behind one parallel to them. Each of them drew their weapons. A large assault rifle appeared in Shepard's hands so fast it was like magic. Tali had elected to draw her shotgun, which was held at the ready. Both Kaidan and Amalia's biotics instantly flared to life, but Kaidan also chose to draw a pistol as well. Amalia selected to keep her gun holstered. She only used a gun when she had to. The female biotic trusted her biotics much more than she trusted a gun to keep both her and the people around her safe.  
With a quick look to make sure that they were all ready, Shepard peered cautiously around the tree. Amalia's muscles tensed as she readied herself for an impending fight. Suddenly, with a sigh and a roll of his eyes, Shepard straightened to his full height and gestured for them to do the same. Holstering their weapons, the two biotics and the quarian looked to see what had them so on edge.

Sitting at the border of the forest was a small animal. It looked to be something similar to a monkey, Amalia observed. Luminous brown eyes found theirs as the squad members stepped out from their hiding places.

"It's a monkey," Kaidan commented. He exchanged a look with Amalia. He was probably thinking the same thing she was. The thing that had previously had them so on edge was nothing more than a monkey. At that thought, Amalia burst out laughing, followed closely by Kaidan.

Shepard and Tali gave each other confused looks before turning to the two laughing biotics. "What's so funny?" Tali inquired.

The commander sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose as if he had a headache. "Who knows? The pressure may have finally gotten to them and caused them to snap. Or…there could be some sort of reasonable explanation," Shepard said.

There was a silence between the quarian and the commander as they watched their comrades regain their composure.

Finally, Tali sighed. "I'm going with the first one."

"That's not funny, Tali," Amalia said, slightly out of breath from laughing.

"Yeah…'cause a monkey is so much funnier," Tali commented dryly.

"You kind had to be in on the conversation that Kaidan and I were having while you and Shepard were working on the probe," the female biotic explained.

"Right…," the quarian said slowly, obviously not entirely convinced.

Amalia was about to say something in response, but was momentarily distracted by Shepard out of the corner of her vision. Instantly, a grin broke onto the female biotic's face before she started to laugh.

"What's so funny?" Tali asked, cocking to head slightly to the side in confusion which Amalia found incredibly adorable.

The dark haired woman pointed over Tali's shoulder at the commander. "Look behind you," she smiled.

The quarian turned and immediately started laughing, accompanied by a snickering Kaidan and Amalia.

The monkey had apparently taken an interest in Shepard and had ventured very close. While Amalia and the others had been talking, the monkey had started to climb all over Shepard. Its tiny hands moved all over his armor, fascinated with all the fastenings and pockets. Shepard, not quite knowing what to do, simply looked to his squad mates for assistance, his expression a mix of mild annoyance and amusement.

"Well? Are you going to help or not?" the commander asked.

Kaidan crossed his arms and laughed. "I don't know what you want us to do, Shepard."

"It seems to really like you," Tali commented, a smile evident in her voice.

Shepard scowled as he turned to look at the small creature that was now perched on his shoulder. The monkey merely cocked its head to the side in fascination, as if it wasn't quite sure what to make of the commander.

"This may be the first time its seen a human. That could be why it's so interested in you," Amalia reasoned thoughtfully.

"Yes, well, be that as it may, I would still prefer to have the monkey off," the commander stated stiffly. He reached up a hand as if to try to push the monkey off his shoulder, but the tiny creature was more agile. It dodged his hand and slid down the commander's leg and proceeded to sprint to the edge of the tree line. With a sigh, Shepard straightened up and said, "Glad that's over."

He moved as if to walk in the opposite direction, but Kaidan stopped him. "Umm, Shepard?" The commander stopped and turned to look at him. Kaidan was still staring at the monkey, which was now chittering excitedly from the edge of the clearing. "I think that monkey may have sticky fingers."

In confusion, Shepard and the others turned their attention back to the small animal. At first they didn't see what Kaidan was talking about, but upon closer inspection they noticed a small card shaped device in the monkey's tiny hands.

Instantly, Shepard's hands flew to his pockets only to find them empty. "The module! Get it!" Without waiting for a response from his squad, Shepard sprinted after the monkey, which proceeded to flee into the trees when it saw the commander coming towards it.

Amalia laughed. "This mission has just gotten a little more lively."

Kaidan sighed. "Why can't the missions ever stay easy?"

"Where's the fun in that?" Amalia grinned at the male biotic.

Tali turned to look at the two biotics beside her. "We should probably help, right?"

"Oh, right!" Amalia exclaimed as if she had actually managed to forget. "You know Shepard is helpless without out us." With a fiendish grin, the female biotic sprinted off into the woods after the commander.

After exchanging looks, the male biotic and quarian ran into the trees after her.

Both Tali and Amalia laughed hysterically at the antics of Shepard and Kaidan as they continued to chase the monkey around the clearing in an attempt to retrieve the stolen module. The two women were laughing so hard that they had to lean on one another for support. The commander and the male biotic dove time and time again as they tried to catch the tiny thief, but to no avail. To make the situation even more hilarious, Shepard repeatedly shouted orders like "surround the enemy!" and "flank him!" as he stumbled after the tiny thief. Amalia could only laugh and continually remind him, "Shepard. It's a monkey."

After another unsuccessful dive at the monkey, Shepard straightened up, brushed the dirt from his armor, and looked at the two women. "You know, you could help," he stated in a blunt tone.

"That's okay. You two seem to be doing just fine without us getting in the way," Tali smiled.

"Besides, by asking us to help, does that mean the great commander Shepard is admitting defeat to a monkey," Amalia grinned as she arched an eye brow quizzically.

"Not a chance," the commander declared at once. His gaze moved over to watch Kaidan as he continued to chase the thief. Then Shepard's blue eyes shifted in the direction of the shuttle, which had arrived while they were chasing the monkey and sat parked at the edge of the clearing. "What I don't understand is why it doesn't leave the clearing," Shepard began, looking back to Amalia and Tali. "It could run off into the woods and lose us in a matter of minutes."

"It's obvious, isn't it?" Amalia stated very matter-of-factly. Both Shepard and Tali looked at her, sharing a similar looks of confusion. "It's playing. By chasing it, the monkey thinks you're playing keep-away with it."

Shepard nodded his understanding as he returned his gaze to Kaidan. "Except for the fact that we aren't playing," the commander sighed.

"We could always wait. It has to get tired at some point," Tali suggested.

Amalia shook her head. "Bad idea. It could get bored and run off with the module," the biotic said.

"Well, then what do we do?" the quarian asked.

The dark haired woman shrugged. She was about to reply, but was interrupted by a shout from Kaidan. "You know, instead of standing around you could help me catch the monkey," he called.

"No thanks! You're doing just fine!" Amalia shouted back.

With a sigh, the commander turned to the biotic and the quarian. "Don't make me pull rank."  
"Well, now. That's new. I've never had someone threaten to pull rank," Amalia smiled.

"There's a first time for everything," Shepard said, offering a smile of his own.

"C'mon, Amalia. Let's show them how you catch a monkey," Tali laughed. She pushed away from the tree she had been leaning against and began to walk over to where Kaidan had resumed chasing the small thief.

Amalia closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the tree. "That's okay. I'll stay right here."

"Amalia…." Shepard groaned. It seemed like he was about to scold her and pull rank to order her to help but he never got the chance.

Suddenly, without opening her eyes, the biotic raised her hand and pointed her palm right where the monkey was running about thirty feet away. Amalia's biotics hummed to life as the familiar blue aura surrounded her entire body. Then, with an almost imperceptible movement of her hand, her biotics snatched the module from the monkey's hands. The data module shot across the clearing and landed securely in Amalia's outstretched hand. The blue aura faded and the biotic turned to the stunned commander and handed him the module. "Try to hang onto it this time, okay?" she smiled.

Shepard just stared at her in utter shock. "You could have done that the entire time?" he exclaimed.

"Apparently so," Amalia smiled.

The commander opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by the sound of ringing coming from his omni-tool. An orange light was emitted as Shepard's omni-tool flared to life and he punched a few buttons.

Abruptly, Joker's voice filled the clearing. "Commander, we have geth ships in orbit and on their way to your position. I'd strongly suggest you leave unless you want to…you know…get yourself into yet another life or death situation."

"Copy that. We're on our way back now." He turned off is omni-tool and looked up at his crew. "Let's move before we get ourselves into a fire fight."

The shuttle door hissed open as it finished docking in the cargo bay of the Normandy. Shepard and his squad stepped out of the shuttle and began disarming as they made their way to the armory. Amalia immediately noticed that Garrus was once again working on the Mako, with what appeared to be Liara trying to help him. Wrex was at the armory with two other soldiers, tending to one of his prized shotguns.

"Shepard," Wrex greeted roughly in his baritone voice. "How'd it go?"

Amalia laughed. "Pretty good. The commander spent most of his time terrorizing a poor monkey," she grinned.

"Hey! It's its own fault for stealing the module," Shepard declared defensively.

The krogan laughed. "Commander Shepard can't even handle a monkey? Good thing you have me around to handle the Reapers, otherwise we would be screwed," Wrex smiled.

"Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up. We'll see who you call when you need a hand taking down all those Reapers," Shepard smiled as he unstrapped a piece of his armor.

"I think I'd call my good friend Garrus Vakarian. As a sniper he can cover me from a safe distance away and stay out of my way," the bounty hunter laughed.

"That's nice, Wrex. And when your blood rage sends you through a wall, I'll be there to pick the rubble off you," Garrus called over to them, straightening up from his work on the Mako.

The krogan's booming laugh filled the cargo bay. "No. That's what Amalia is for," he said, clapping the female biotic on the shoulder.

She looked at the bounty hunter, not bothering to hide the look of surprise on her face. "Me?"

"I saw the vids from Kierlack. You're tougher than you look," Wrex said.

Amalia blushed from the compliment and awkwardly tucked a few stray locks of hair behind her ear.

"Yeah, well I think Amalia would be more likely to get you blown up from her losing control of her biotics," Garrus replied.

The female shot him a murderous glare. "Can someone hit him for me?"

A loud smack emanated through the cargo bay. Garrus looked up to see that Liara had just hit him with the datapad she had been reading.

"Thanks, Liara," Amalia laughed.

"It's no trouble," the asari called back with a smile.

"Amalia?" The biotic turned at the sound of her name. "Meet me in the mess hall in ten minutes. We need to talk," Shepard said, setting the last piece of his armor on the table.

The dark haired woman nodded stiffly. The commander turned on his heel, headed into the elevator, and disappeared form view when the doors hissed shut. Immediately, Amalia turned to Tali and Kaidan. "Am I in trouble? Did I do something wrong?" she asked in a panicked voice.

The male biotic held up a hand to calm her. "It's alright. It's nothing like that. Shepard probably just wants to get to know you a little better," he explained.

"Yeah. He did it with all of us. He probably wants to do the same thing with you since he hasn't had a chance yet," Tali added with a supportive smile that could be heard in her voice, since it obviously couldn't be seen through her purple tinted mask.

"Fantastic," Amalia sighed. She turned and began to walk towards the elevator doors.

"Be sure to tell him what your favorite color is!" Garrus called after her.

"Be quiet, Garrus," Amalia scolded, rolling her eyes. With that, she stepped into the elevator and was gone.

A/N: I would like to briefly apologize for the rogue line shortly after the first authors note. My computer is throwing a temper tantrum and decided it likes that line right where it is. Technology, huh? What are you going to do?


	7. The Talk

7

Amalia nervously tapped her fingers on the table as she waited for Shepard to arrive for their "talk." The biotic sighed. She wasn't sure how much she wanted to tell him. She didn't want to have to keep saying "I don't really want to talk about that." Amalia understood what he was trying to do, and she wanted to be able to comply, but she still wasn't sure if she would be able to do it or if she even should.

"Good, you showed up." The female biotic looked up to see Shepard standing before her. "I thought you might make some excuse about how you had better and more important things to do," he smiled as he took the seat across from her.

Amalia smiled back. "I thought about it, but I didn't want you pulling rank on me."

Shepard gave a small laugh. "So, the reason I wanted to talk to you is because I wanted to take the time to get to know you a little better. I like to know my crew. So tell me about yourself."

"Uhh…I'm not quite sure where to begin or what you would even care to know," Amalia said, feeling slightly awkward.

"Fair enough. How about where you grew up?"

"Well, I was born in London, but didn't stay there for long. My family liked to move around."

"Why is that?"

"My dad was military. They moved his station a lot. Usually outskirt colonies," Amalia responded.

"Military? Was he with the Alliance?" the commander inquired.

"I think so. I couldn't tell you what rank. It was a long title. I was young and never really paid attention," the dark haired woman shrugged.

Shepard laughed a little. "What about your mother? What did she do?"

"Uhh, she was in politics. Like I said, I never really paid attention so I couldn't tell you what her position was."

"So, you've only told me about your parents. Does that mean that you are an only child?" Shepard asked.

Amalia's strange blue eyes drifted down to were her hands sat folded on the table. Her grip tightened slightly on her hands before she returned her gaze up to Shepard. "No."

Shepard could both see and hear the sadness on her features and in her voice. "I'm sorry. You don't have to answer that if you don't want to," he said as gently as he could.

Amalia smiled sadly and held up a hand to silence him. "No, it's okay." The biotic took a steadying breath as her voice wavered slightly. "I had an older brother and two little sisters."

"What happened?"

The young woman's eyes shifted to her hands once again. She was silent for a long time, with Shepard waiting respectfully for her to continue, before she answered. "They died. Along with my dad."

Shepard regarded her thoughtfully before saying, "tell me about them."

This caught Amalia by surprise and she didn't even bother to hide it. Her head shot up and her blue eyes found his own. Whenever someone found out about her family, they always did the same thing. They would say their sorry and either ask how they died or dodge the subject altogether. Nobody had even asked her what they were like.

"My dad's name was Derius. He was just this….massive man. To anyone looking at him, they would find him intimidating; the very portrait of what a battle hardened soldier would look like. I know a lot of the troops that he commanded thought of him that way. But then, they would get to know him. You know, you actually remind me of him a little, Shepard," Amalia said with a small smile playing on her lips as she looked at the commander.

"Really? How so?" the other man questioned.

"He took the time to get to know them as individuals, the same way you do. He would learn about their families, lives, and aspirations. I asked him once why he did it. He told me it was because he didn't want it to come to the point where soldiers that died became faceless and were written off as yet another casualty of war. Just yet another pawn lost. He said it was because the pawns are the ones that win the wars, not the pompous higher-ups that tell them what to do. They may give them direction, but the soldiers on the ground are the ones that execute those plans."

"He sounds like a great man. I wish I could have met him," Shepard said kindly.

Amalia laughed a little as she looked at the commander. "I think he would have liked you."

"What about your brother?"

"Arrin. He was like a younger version of my father. He wanted to be just like him. He had just gotten into the army." Amalia scoffed. "My dad made him start at the bottom; said he wouldn't help him get any promotions and that he had to gain ranks for his abilities and not his parentage."

"How did he react?" the commander asked with a smile.

The biotic laughed a little. "Like I said, he was a younger version of my father. He actually agreed without a fight."

"Unlike you," the commander said with a mischievous smile.

"Hey! I've always followed your orders," she declared defensively.

Shepard laughed lightly before he asked, "What about your sisters?"

"Morah and Sheya. Morah was the youngest. The two of them were inseparable. You would almost never see one without the other," Amalia said with a small smile as she recalled certain memories.

"As their older sister you must have been very close with them," the commander observed.

Amalia scoffed. "Yeah. My mother saw to that."

"What do you mean?" he asked in a confused tone.

"I mean, I know that she had work to do and that she was busy. My dad was, too, but he still managed to make time for us. It was mostly Arrin and I looking after them while our parents were away. So, yeah, my brother, sisters, and I were very close."

"You sound like you resent your mother," Shepard said.

Amalia sighed. She reached up her hand and swept back a few stray black hairs that always managed to elude her hair tie. "I don't resent her…I just feel like she could have tried harder, you know? I suppose it doesn't matter anymore."

"What do you mean? Did you lose contact?"

"After my dad, brother, and sisters died, we both dealt with our grief separately. Eventually we moved to different places and lost contact altogether. I have no idea where she is now or what she's doing," Amalia said.

When she talked about her mother, Shepard could hear a mild anger directed at her mother, but yet at the same time a kind of sadness. Because of that he felt compelled to ask, "Do you regret losing contact with her?"

The biotic shrugged. "I'm not sure. When my family was alive, she was so busy that we almost never got to spend time with each other. Then when they died, we grew apart. She wouldn't even look at me, she just outright avoided me and I just let it happen. I didn't even try to keep contact with the only family I had left...I feel like if I saw her again, I might try to patch things up. But who knows if she would even want to," she sighed.

"You're her daughter. I'm sure she feels the same way," Shepard comforted.

"Maybe. Still doesn't change the fact that I don't know where she is at the moment. So even if I wanted to, I would still need to find her," the dark haired woman said.

"You said she was a politician, right?" the commander inquired. Amalia nodded in response. "Well, then she would probably be in political center such as the Citadel or Earth if she wanted to work her way up the ladder as nearly all politicians do. Even if she's not there, someone in one of those two places might know where she is now. If you want, I could use my resources to see if I could find her," Shepard offered.

"You'd do that?" Amalia asked incredulously.

"Of course. Your one of my crew," he smiled gently.

The biotic smiled back. "Sure. You can try, but something tells me that you won't be able to find her."

"You never know until you try," the commander said.

Amalia shrugged. "I guess." She cocked her head to the side as if to get a better look at the man before her. "You would really step out of your way for one of your crew?" the biotic asked curiously and with a tone of respect in her voice.

"Why shouldn't I?" Shepard asked.

"Well, it just that every military leader that I've ever met seemed to put the mission before their soldiers. I just thought you would do the same," the biotic explained.

Shepard laughed. "How dare you make such an assumption!"

The dark haired woman grinned broadly. "Oh I dare!" she laughed. Amalia crossed her arms across her chest and leaned back in her chair as she regarded the commander before her. "So, I think it's time to turn the tables. Why don't you tell me about yourself?" she smiled.

The commander laughed lightly. He crossed his arms and leaned forward and placed his elbows on the table, putting his weight on them. "What do you want to know?"

"Well, for one thing, what's your first name? I kind of feel bad just calling you Shepard all of the time," she said, raising an inquiring eyebrow.

Once again, the commander laughed. "It has something to do with respect. That's why I'm only known by my last name," he explained.

"Yeah, well, I respect people by knowing their full name. So what is it?"

"John. Plain, I know," he smiled.

Amalia shook her head, causing her long black ponytail to swing back and forth. "It's not that plain. Besides, even if it is, I think your reputation makes you far from plain."

"Really?" Shepard arched an eyebrow and looked at her as if he didn't quite believe her.

"Really," Amalia confirmed. "You're going placed Shepard. I have a feeling that someday, you're going to make history. Someday, everyone will know the name of John Shepard."

Shepard smiled, obviously still not believing her. "You sound confident in my future greatness," he said.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Amalia said incredulously. "I mean, look what you've already accomplished already! You've become the first human Spectre, have command of the most advanced Alliance warship ever built, and are currently on a mission to stop the destruction of the galaxy at the hands of the Reapers."

"Right…" Shepard raised his hand and pointed a finger at her. "That's another question I wanted to ask you."

Amalia froze. "What?"

"When we went to Kierlack to free you, part of the reason we went is because we heard you saying that you were crazed. That you were raving about the return of the Reapers. But you see, this was happening before anyone had even confirmed that it was the Reapers. So how did you know? What do you know about them?" Shepard asked, his entire face serious as he waited for her answer.

The biotic bit her lower lip. "As you may remember, I was kind of drugged…" she said slowly, raising her eyebrows.

"True, but that still doesn't explain how you know anything about Reapers," the commander observed.

"Well, stories of the Reapers have always been around. I just know them better than most because I've heard so many different versions of it as I moved from place to place. After the massacre on Eden Prime, I recognized some of the signs from the Reaper stories. The drugs the slavers on Kierlack gave me must have really made me so out of it that I started to rant about the Reapers' return. The drugs must have just made me loosen my tongue a little, that's all," Amalia reasoned.

The commander sighed, long and heavy. "Why don't I feel like I believe you?"

"I don't know. You're just overly suspicious. I'm telling you the truth," the biotic affirmed strongly, leaning forward in her seat as if to further enforce her point.

John Shepard leaned back in his chair, his arms still crossed, as he regarded her thoughtfully. "So then, you don't know anything about the Reapers that could help us in our mission?"

The dark haired woman put up her hands as if to ward off his words. "No, no, no. They may be stories, but they do have some truth to them. I mean, they practically described the events at Eden Prime, didn't they? They can still be of help…and so can I," Amalia said, saying the last statement more quietly.

The man across from her nodded his head slowly. Finally, he shrugged. "Alright, fine. I still feel like you're hiding something from me, though," he said. The way the commander said that last statement didn't sound like he was scolding her. It was more like he was just tired and just accepted that she didn't want to say what she knew.

"I'm not," she said again, tucking another rogue strand of hair behind her ear.

Shepard shrugged once again and rose from his seat. "I have work I need to go do now. Maybe we'll talk later?"

Amalia nodded stiffly. "Sure."

Without another word, the commander pushed in his chair and strode down the hall until he was out of sight.

Amalia felt as if she had an empty pit in her stomach. She had lied right to Shepard's face and didn't buy it. Hell, he even called her on it. She had blown her first talk with Shepard. The biotic couldn't help but wonder if the commander even trusted her now.

Rising from her chair, the dark haired woman quickly walked out of the mess hall, down the hallway, and into her room. When the door hissed shut behind her, she strode over to her bed, sat down, and fell backwards until she was laying on her back with her legs hanging over the side. The biotic threw her arms over her face as if she was trying to ward away the memory of the look on Shepard's face as he looked at her, not believing a word she was saying. Would he ever trust her again? Although, the question is, did he even trust her in the first place? These talks were not only a way for him to get to know his crew, but also for him to build up trust with those he entrusted with his life on missions.

A sudden realization dawned on the biotic. What if he didn't think she was useful to him anymore? He could kick her off of the Normandy if he wanted to. What's to stop him from doing it? Amalia cringed inwardly at the thought. She hated the thought of leaving the Normandy. It had become something similar to a home to her. The people on this ship, her friends, were the closest things to family she had left in the galaxy. She didn't want to lose any of them.

That thought brought her attention to earlier in their conversation when they had talked about the death of her father, brother, and sisters. Amalia had actually surprised herself to find that she was able to talk about them without crying. That wound still felt so fresh, but yet she had still managed to get through talking about it a little with only a few pauses to regain her composure. Maybe…she was finally starting to move on. Maybe she was starting to get over their deaths.

Amalia paused at that thought.

Was it even right of her to say that she was "getting over" their deaths? Was that something you even got over? Amalia outright sighed. Maybe it just comes to the day, when you don't burst out crying when you think about them. Maybe that's the closest you come to moving on. Amalia knew that her family would be in her thoughts every day, and that she would always grieve their loss, but it was possible for the day to come when she could look back on the time that she had with them and smile, not remember the day they died and cry.

The biotic's thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door. "It's open," she called. Amalia heard the door hiss open and close.

"Are you alright?" came the voice of Ashley.

With a sigh, Amalia removed her arms from over her face and looked at the brunette as she sat down on the bed next to her. "I've been better," the biotic commented dryly.

"I'd guess. I say you come in here and I thought that you looked a little upset. Thought I'd come in and check on you. So what's wrong?" the other woman asked gently.

Sighing once again, the dark haired woman raised herself up until she was sitting shoulder to shoulder with Ashley. She didn't look at the gunnery chief as she began to speak. "I think I blew things with Shepard. I don't think he trusts me."

"What'd you say to make you think that he wouldn't trust you?" the female soldier asked.

"More like what I didn't tell him," Amalia said, looking sideways at the other woman.

Ashley nodded knowingly. "He called you on it didn't he?" It was Amalia's turn to nod. "Don't worry about it. Shepard still trusts you as he does his entire crew. You would probably have shoot that man in the chest before he wouldn't trust you. Even then, he may think it was an accident," Ashley smiled gently.

The biotic scoffed. "Somehow I doubt that. I mean, you didn't see the way he looked at me. It was written on his face that he didn't trust me. Hell, I feel like someday soon he's just going to kick me off the Normandy and be done with it."

Suddenly, the brunette's face turned stern. "That's bullshit and you know it. You must not be that good at reading the looks on other people's faces, because I highly doubt that's what you saw. It wasn't mistrust. It was probably him just trying to reason out what you weren't telling him. That doesn't mean he doesn't trust you. Those are separate issues and he definitely is not going to throw you off the Normandy," Ashley declared, finishing her rant.

Amalia smiled and let out a breathy laugh. "Thanks, Ash."

The other woman returned the smile. "No problem."

"Sorry for sitting here and feeling sorry for myself when you probably have better things to do than sit here and comfort me," she apologized.

"Don't worry about it. I think everyone needs to feel sorry for themselves sometimes," the female soldier smiled supportively.

Amalia was about to say something in response, but another knock at her door interrupted her.

"You sure are popular today," Ashley commented.

"I just hope that it's not another person come to watch me wallow in self-loathing and try to cheer me up," the biotic stated dryly. Ashley smiled. "Come in!" she called.

The door hissed open once again to admit Kaidan. He stopped in the doorway, not allowing the door to close. He was about to say something to Amalia when he noticed Ashley sitting next to her and stopped. The male biotic leaned up against the doorway and said, "I'm not interrupting anything am I?"

"No, it's alright. We just finished. What's up?" Amalia said with a friendly smile on her face.

"Actually…I came to ask you something about the mission today," he began slowly.

"Sure. What is it?" the female biotic encouraged.

"How did you get the data module out of that monkey's hand? You weren't even looking at it and it was moving. Plus, it was a pretty good distance away. So, I just wanted to know how you did that?"

Amalia stopped and considered it before responding. "A lot of practice and hardcore training," was her answer.

"Where'd you learn to do that?" Kaidan inquired, crossing his arms over his chest.

"I learned a lot of different things from a lot of different people in different places. I couldn't specifically tell you where," Amalia explained. She cocked her head slightly to the side. "Why do you ask?"

Kaidan's dark eyes darted around the room rather nervously. Finally, he said, "I was wondering if you would be able to teach me."

That caught Amalia by surprise. "What?" she asked in an incredulous tone.

"I want you to teach me. I've both seen and heard about what you can do with your biotics and I want to learn more," Kaidan said determinedly.

Amalia scoffed, still not believing what she was hearing. "I've **never** trained anyone before. I was always the one getting trained."

"Well, maybe now's the time that you finally became the teacher," Ashley chimed in.

The female biotic continued to look from Kaidan to Ashley and back again. After a few seconds of considering it, she threw up her hands and sighed. "Fine. I'll help you. Not sure about how good of a teacher I am, but I guess we'll find out soon enough."

Kaidan grinned broadly. "Thanks. So, when do we start?"

"We could always start now," Amalia said thoughtfully.

"Now? Right here?" Ashley asked, slightly confused.

"No. We can practice in the cargo hold where there's more room," the dark haired woman explained.

"And more of an audience," the female soldier mumbled under her breath.

"So we're starting now?" Kaidan asked.

Amalia nodded. "Let's head down the cargo hold now and start your training."


	8. Precision

6

Amalia and Kaidan stood opposite each other in the cargo bay. The male biotic waited for direction, as he shifted back and forth on his feet. A few of the soldiers in the armory stopped their work to watch the two biotics, curious as to what was going on. Wrex had apparently finished with his shotgun and left the cargo bay because he was nowhere to be found. Ashley had followed them down from Amalia's room to watch and was currently sitting on one of the crates near the Mako. Garrus, as always, was busying himself with the calibrations on the Mako's guns and wasn't paying much attention to the two biotics.

"Okay," Amalia began, turning to face Kaidan directly, "First let's start off by seeing what you already know. So, I want you to attack me so that I can assess where your skills are at and I can tell where you need work."

Kaidan seemed to hesitate. "You want me to attack you?" he asked incredulously.

The female biotic smiled. "Don't worry. You won't be able to touch me." She beckoned him forward.

Kaidan laughed.

"Don't worry about her. She's really cocky," Garrus called over from the other side of the Mako.

"And I have good reason to be," Amalia called back with a grin.

"Look who's being modest," Garrus said, the ever present smirk in his voice.

Amalia laughed. "Stop with the distractions, Garrus." She turned back to Kaidan. "Alright, come on. Show me what you can do."

Kaidan nodded in response. Immediately, his biotics hummed to life and surrounded him in a bright blue aura. Amalia's biotics remained dormant as she waited for his attack. Abruptly, he raised his arm and acted as if he was throwing something at her. A baseball sized ball of energy flew through the air towards Amalia. When it was almost to her, the dark haired woman's biotics flared to life. She brought up her hand and the ball of energy hit her palm, but nothing happened. It was as if the impact had been absorbed. Then, all at once, her biotics faded and became dormant once again.

The female biotic calmly lowered her hand until it was resting at her side. "Good attack. A descent amount of power behind it, but you need to be more precise," Amalia instructed.

"What do you mean?" Kaidan asked, sounding confused.

"Umm…," the dark haired woman began searching for a way to describe what she meant.

"Do a demonstration," Ashley called over. "Be sure to use small words so that Aleinko can understand."

Amalia laughed. "Alright. I can do that."

The male biotic chuckled as well. "Be quiet, Ash."

Instantly, the dark haired woman's biotics flared to life once again, illuminating a small section of the cargo bay in a pale blue light. "By putting a lot of strength into an attack, you waste energy that you could potentially use later. By using precision you can conserve your energy but still deal a great deal of damage if you know where to apply your biotics," she explained.

"Like where?" Kaidan inquired.

Amalia grinned mischievously. "Here."

Quicker than Kaidan had time to react, Amalia's biotics grabbed a hold of the bottom of the male biotic's pants and pulled just enough to tug him off balance and send him toppling to the floor. He landed with a loud thud upon the metal floor. Immediately, several soldiers in the armory stifled their laughter at the fallen biotic.

"What was that?!" Kaidan exclaimed, propping himself up on his elbows as he began to rise to his feet.

"A demonstration," Amalia smiled.

"You're joking! You attacked me! I could have used some sort of warning!" he exclaimed.

"That would have defeated the purpose. I was not only showing you one way to attack your enemy with more precision, but also demonstrating that you should never lower your defenses. Otherwise you risk a surprise attack," Amalia explained.

"I didn't realize you were teaching me about surprise attacks," the male biotic stated slowly as he rose to his feet.

Amalia put her hands on her hips. "It's an ever present issue." She smiled briefly before her expression turned serious once more. "Now, tugging on anything attached to your enemy, such as clothes, can set them off balance and open them up to a more direct attack. A gun for example or it could give you a chance to get in close to finish them off."

"Okay. I see your point." Kaiden rose to his full height, his hand gripping his back. "And feel it, too."

Immediately, Amalia's face turned to one of concern as she rushed towards to male biotic. "Are you alright? I didn't overdo it, did I?" she asked worriedly. She reached out gingerly towards Kaidan.

The dark haired man waved her away with a smile. "It's fine. Just a reminder that I'm not as young as I used to be," he said with a smirk.

Amalia laughed. "You're not that old," she declared. The female biotic slapped him playfully on the shoulder which caused him to groan slightly.

It was Ashley's turn to laugh. "Aleinko's an old man at heart," she grinned.

"Didn't I tell you to be quiet not even two minutes ago, Ash?" the male biotic threw at her.

The female soldier crossed her arms over her chest. "You did, but it needed to be said."

Amalia looked back to the male biotic before her. Her expression was gentle as she asked, "we don't have to keep going if you don't want to."

At this, Kaidan burst out laughing. "I'm a soldier. I've dealt with worse pain than a bruised back," he grinned.

"I don't know, Aleinko. You sure you don't need a cane or something? Perhaps a wheelchair?" Garrus smirked, his voice echoing from the other side of the Mako.

Amalia laughed.

"Would everyone stop making backseat comments, please?" Kaidan called in an exasperated tone.

"Ignore them. Let's just keep going," the dark haired biotic said with a smile.

So, for the next three and a half hours, Amalia instructed Kaidan on how to be more precise with his biotic use in order to conserve energy. She taught him certain areas that are best for catching an enemy off guard, such as pressure points. Kaidan knew of a few of the more well known ones, but Amalia proceeded to teach him about several others that he could press on slightly with his biotics to hinder his opponents. Throughout the lesson, Amalia would repeatedly attack him from all directions with her biotics, trying to catch him off guard, which he usually was. She explained that she was trying to make it second nature for him to anticipate and nullify a surprise attack, but Kaidan was sure that Amalia was amused by the annoyed expression that would cross his face as he picked himself up off the cargo bay floor. This would cause Kaidan to start quarreling with Amalia on her teaching methods. By watching the two of them argue, you could easily mistake them for a bickering brother and sister.

After the lesson was finished, Kaidan was slightly slouched with exhaustion, out of breath and his body covered in a sheen of sweat. Amalia, on the other hand, stood perfectly calm opposite him. Her breathing was deep and even and completely relaxed. There was nothing to show that she had even been using her biotics, much less for three and a half hours. It was just more proof how much more powerful she was than the male biotic.

"I think that's enough for today. You look like you're about to pass out," Amalia observed dryly.

"I am not!" Kaiden declared defensively. "Besides, I wouldn't be so out of breath if you didn't keep attacking me for your own amusement."

Amalia sighed and rolled her bright blue eyes as she placed her hands on her hips. "Here we go again."

"Damn right 'here we go again!' It is and always will be an uncalled for attack," Kaidan threw at her.

"It was part of the lesson," Amalia replied calmly.

"Yeah, well…you're not a very good teacher. You were supposed to be helping me, not beating me down," the male biotic said.

Amalia shifted on her feet nervously. "I never claimed to be a good teacher." She crossed her arms over her chest and looked down at her feet before returning her gaze back to the male biotic's dark eyes. "It was the first lesson. I'm learning, too. Besides, this was the way I was trained," she explained.

This caught Kaidan's attention. "You were trained this way?" he asked.

"It was slightly worse. The surprise attacks were more frequent and had more power behind them. By the end of the lesson, I usually had a lot of bruises. So believe me when I say that I went easy on you," the dark haired woman said seriously.

"Who trained you?" Kaidan asked.

Amalia shrugged. "Lots of people. Like I've told you, I picked things up as I moved around over the years."

"But they didn't all teach you that way, did they?"

"No, but that was how my main lessons went."

"Where were you first trained?" Ashley asked as she joined the conversation, kicking away from the crate she had been leaning against and walking over to where they were standing.

Amalia felt uncomfortable, as if she was being backed into a corner by questions she didn't want to answer. She wasn't good at lying and didn't want to anyways. These people were her friends and she trusted them, but every time they began asking her questions, she could feel their trust in her waning. Amalia inwardly sighed. She wasn't good at this.

Luckily, she didn't have to answer.

"Well, I'm done here. You guys want to go to the mess hall and get something to eat?" Garrus called as he came out from behind the Mako.

Ashley and Kaidan turned their attention from the female biotic to look at the approaching sniper. "Sure. I could use something to eat after watching that thrashing Kaidan got. Maybe some popcorn," Ashley grinned.

Kaidan chuckled. "Very funny, Ash. I didn't see you helping out at all."

"That's because it's more fun to watch. Besides, it was your lesson."

"That's just an excuse. I can't believe…"

The conversation faded away as Kaidan and Ashley walked together to the elevator. Amalia turned to Garrus who now stood next to her. "Thank you for that," she said gratefully.

The turian turned to look at her, his deep blue eyes finding her own bright blue ones. He nodded. "No problem. You know, we really should have a safe word in case either of us becomes involved in a conversation we don't want to be apart of."

Amalia smiled. "Are you saying you're apart of a lot of those types of conversations, Garrus?"

"No, but you apparently get cornered into those conversations. Besides, I wouldn't mind having that option available if it happens in the future," the sniper explained.

The female biotic laughed. "You've got yourself a deal, Vakarian."

"Are you guys coming or am I holding the elevator door for nothing?" Kaidan called over to them.

With a breathy laugh from Garrus and roll of Amalia's eyes, the two of them walked over to the elevator to join the two soldiers.

Amalia sat hunched over at one of the tables in the mess hall. As with every other night, the biotic had awoken plagued by horrible nightmares. She took deep, steadying breaths in an attempt to calm her still rapidly beating heart.

The sound of a door hissing open in the distance brought a slight smile to Amalia's face, despite the fact that she hadn't fully recovered from her nightmares. Footsteps rang out dully in the silence and Amalia looked up to see Garrus walking towards her.

Without saying a word, he moved over to the kitchen area. He reached into a cabinet set aside for Tali and him and pulled out a cup. The dextros onboard had to have their plates, cups, cutlery, and other dishes separate from the rest of the levo Normandy crew in order to prevent contamination. Merely ingesting any of their tissue or something of the like could make a crew member become very sick and even potentially die in extreme cases. So it was imperative to keep them separate from everyone else or risk dire consequences.

Going over to the faucet, the turian proceeded to fill his newly acquired cup with water. When he was finished, he walked over to Amalia and took a seat across from her. Almost laughably, Garrus and Amalia had sat in the same exact seats every night since the very first night they had met like this.

Also, since that first night, Amalia slowly stopped putting on the façade that she was alright. She ceased putting on her painfully fake smile anytime Garrus came into the mess hall. The only reason she had done it that first night was because she was worried that Garrus would ask her about it upon seeing her distressed state. Once she realized that he wouldn't ask her about it, Amalia had slowly stopped hiding. Now, she barely disguised her upset visage. It was such a relief for Amalia to not have to hide for once. At this time, she felt as if she could set aside the lies and vague answers and simply be herself.

"So," Garrus began as he set his cup down on the table, "Remember how we made a deal to create a safe word so that we can rescue each other from uncomfortable conversations?" Amalia nodded. "Yeah…problem with that is that we forgot to decide on what the actual safe word would be."

This caused the biotic to break out into a wide grin. "You're right. So, what do you want it to be?"

"I didn't really have anything in mind at the moment. What about you?"

"Well…umm." Amalia considered it for a moment before answering. "Shrieking bananas!"

Garrus smirked and laughed a little. "Isn't a banana a type of fruit? I'm pretty sure that they don't shriek. Besides, that's not the best safe word."

"No, no! It's perfect. Here me out on this. That could be our safe word…s. And that way, even if neither of us around to rescue the other, if you yell that, chances are the person you're talking to would think you've lost your mind and wouldn't want to talk to you anymore anyways," Amalia smiled mischievously.

"What if they ask why you yelled shrieking bananas?" the sniper asked.

The biotic shrugged. "I don't know. Just keep yelling it over and over until they leave."

Garrus chuckled and Amalia smiled. She took a sip of her own water that she had gotten soon after she had awoken.

"Now, on a more serious note," the turian began. Amalia looked up at him, setting her cup back down onto the table. "I heard about your talk with Shepard."

The dark haired woman's brow furrowed slightly. "What do you mean you heard about it?"

"I mean, I know what you talked about. In case you hadn't noticed, there were people in the mess hall with you," he explained.

"What a bunch of gossips," Amalia said with annoyance. She cocked her head every so slightly to the side as she regarded the turian. "I didn't think you were the type to listen to gossip, Garrus."

"I'm not. It's just hard not to hear it when other people are talking about it. Voices tend to carry in the cargo bay."

Amalia crossed her arms over her chest and scowled. "I cannot believe this," she said icily.

"Why are you so upset?" Garrus asked.

She gave him an incredulous look, as if it was blatantly obvious. "Because, I know what happens next. They'll pass me in a hallway and give me a pitying look. I'll see it and know what they are thinking about. It's hard enough for me to keep my family out of my mind. I don't need their pitying looks to constantly remind me of what I've lost. I don't want their pity. I don't need it," Amalia said, her voice just sounding tired. She was silent for a long moment before continuing. "I saw enough of those looks when they first died. Now, after seeing them so much, I can't stand the sight of them. That was part of the reason that I didn't tell anyone right away. It was because I was worried that something like this might happen."

"I don't see why you despise their pity so much. It simply means that they care about you and wish you didn't have to feel any pain," the sniper said gently. "It's called empathy."

Amalia sighed heavily. "I know. And I don't hate them for it. Still, it just makes it that much harder to get through the day to have yet another reminder."

Garrus nodded. "I understand."

Reaching up a hand, Amalia tugged at a brown, leather string around her neck, just visible above the collar of her shirt. She drew out a necklace and let it rest in the palm of her hand so that Garrus could see it better. On the string were five different stones of varying colors; blue, green, red, yellow, and purple. On each of the stones was some sort of engraving. It wasn't a language that Garrus recognized. It must have been some sort of human language that Amalia learned in her travels.

"It's called a mourning charm. It's said that if you put a stone on the necklace for whoever you're grieving and wear it close it your heart, then they will always be with you and you won't have to mourn them anymore," she explained, her voice sounding far away as she gazed at the necklace.

The turian nodded knowingly. She must have a stone for her father, brother, and two little sisters. But then…

Garrus pointed to the red stone situated in the center of the necklace, the one that was slightly bigger than the others. "What is the fifth stone?"

Amalia smiled sadly as she looked from the stone to Garrus. "It's for my home."

"You lost your home, too?" the sniper asked carefully. The biotic nodded. "I thought you grew up on the move, though."

"I did. But there is always one place above the rest that you see as your home," she explained. There was a moment of silence where neither of them said anything. Then, Amalia took one last look at her necklace before she tucked it back into the confines of her shirt. "Now, if you don't mind, I'd rather talk about something less depressing."

"Fair enough. What do you want to talk about?"

Amalia smiled. "Shrieking bananas."

A/N: Thanks for reading. If there is anything in particular that you would like to see in this particular fanfic, feel free to throw out suggestions. If I like it, I'll try to work it into the story somewhere.

As always, please give me some reviews.


	9. The Crime of Understanding

9

The sound of activity outside her door was what awoke Amalia from her slumber. Stretching and yawning as she rubbed the sleep from her unique blue eyes, the biotic threw back the covers of her bed. Straightening and sighing with exhaustion, Amalia let her bare feet touch the cold metal floor of the Normandy, flinching as she did so. Never in her life had Amalia been a morning person.

As she did every morning, Amalia reached under her bed and pulled out her duffel bag. Rifling through it she pulled out a deep navy long-sleeve shirt that slipped down to her shoulders, a white tank top, a pair of dark colored skinny jeans, a pair of socks, and a thick brown belt. Setting her newly selected outfit on her bed, Amalia proceeded with her morning routine. She started first with some stretches to warm up and loosen her muscles. The stretches also served the purpose of waking her up in the morning.

When she was finished she walked out of her room and down the hallway to wash her face. As soon as she was satisfied, the biotic went back to her room and changed into her outfit. Spying her ankle high boots at the end of her bed, Amalia hurriedly pulled them onto her feet. Running a brush quickly through her tangled locks, the dark haired woman threw her hair up into her usual long ponytail. Satisfied with her appearance, the biotic walked out of her room and down the hallway to the mess hall to get something to eat.

As she walked down the hall, Amalia actually found herself humming to herself. The tune was familiar to her, but she had trouble remembering the name of the song itself. She pondered it as she walked into the mess hall, heading straight for the kitchen area.

Liara was sitting at the table, buried in several datapads and barely touching her breakfast. Kaidan sat across from her, eating what appeared to be cereal, and making an attempt to help the clearly busy asari by going through one of her datapads. Tali was sitting next to Liara, trying to help, too. It seemed like her time was up, though, because the quarian rose from her seat and began to leave the mess hall to go the elevator to get to the engineering deck and the work that required her down there. As she walked past, the quarian girl made sure to wave a friendly hello to the female biotic before walking down the hall and out of sight. Amalia smiled and waved back before returning to her quest for breakfast.

The biotic continued to hum quietly to herself as she sifted through the cabinets until she found a container of what appeared to be cereal. As she started to search for a bowl in the levo cabinet, Amalia took a mental note of who wasn't in the mess hall right then.

Wrex was always in the cargo bay at this time of the day, tending to his beloved weapons and armor. He also seemed to take great pride in scaring the soldiers working at the armory. It was meant to be fun, but something told her that the soldiers only laughed in the end so that the krogan didn't actually get angry.

Garrus was always up early and working. Now there was a morning person if you ever met one. He was usually up for at least an hour before anyone else, either working on the Normandy's guns or the Mako's. His work ethic and determination to get the best calibration for the guns was amazing to say the least.

Ashley-

Amalia's thoughts were cut off as the brunette soldier walked up beside her and immediately started reaching to pour herself some coffee. From the look on her face, you could tell that Ashley wasn't too much of a morning person either. Probably due to her tired state, the gunnery chief had elected to let her long brown locks fall down about her face, instead of up in her usual bun.

"Are you humming?" Kaidan asked, interrupting the female biotic's thoughts yet again.

"Yes, I am. Haven't you ever woken up with a song stuck in your head?" Amalia asked with a slight smile. She finished pouring her cereal and stuffed it back into the cabinet where she got it. As she did so, she grabbed a mug for Ashley. The brunette nodded her thanks, took the mug, and began to pour herself a hot cup of coffee.

"No. No I have not," Kaidan answered with a dead pan expression even though he was only joking with her. His dark eyes shifted to look at the female soldier on the other side of Amalia. "What about you, Ash?"

"Not until after I've had my coffee," she mumbled tiredly as she raised the mug to her lips. She really wasn't a morning person.

The two women grabbed their morning meals and headed over to the table. "Where's everyone else? There weren't any missions were there?" Amalia asked.

Liara was the one to answer, tearing her eyes away from the datapad gripped in her hand, and shaking her head. "No. No missions yet. Shepard's been spending a lot of time on the galaxy map, though. I wouldn't be surprised if he finds something soon," the asari commented.

"Oh, joy," the female biotic stated dryly. She set her bowl on the table and pulled out the chair to sit down.

Right as Amalia and Ashley sat down, Joker's voice came over the comm. system. "Surprise, surprise! Shepard has found yet another mess for us to clean up. It comes in the form of a hostage situation onboard the MSV Ontario. The commander has requested that Kaidan, Liara, Amalia, and Ashley report to the cargo bay to accompany him. That's all." With that, Joker's sarcastic voice disappeared.

Ashley groaned. "We just sat down."

Sighing, Kaidan got to his feet. "C'mon. Let's go."

The other three got to their feet. They quickly helped Liara take her datapads back to the med bay for Doctor Chakwas to look after before heading for the elevator.

As they climbed in and punched the button for the cargo bay, Amalia felt compelled to ask, "Why does it seem like Shepard has been taking me on a lot of missions recently?"

The other three looked at her. Ashley was the first to answer. "It's possible he wants to see the full extent of your abilities. It could also be to build up a certain level of trust between you. Shepard is all about trust," she said thoughtfully.

"It could also be because you are more suited to whatever situation he has gotten us into now," Kaidan added.

Ashley nodded in agreement. "That's also a possibility."

"Well then what about me?" Liara spoke up. "He hasn't asked me on hardly any missions since I came on the Normandy."

Amalia considered it before answering. "He probably doesn't want to interrupt your work. He knows you have a lot of notes to go through and that it is going to take a while. He just wants to give you as much time as he can," the female biotic reasoned.

"How's that going by the way?" Ashley asked in a friendly tone. The coffee must be starting to kick in.

Liara smiled. "Pretty well, actually. I think I'm getting close to figuring out Shepard's vision from the beacon, but I still need a little more time until I'm sure."

The elevator doors hissed open and the four squad mates emerged into the cargo bay. Just as Amalia predicted earlier, Garrus was already working on the Mako and Wrex was in the armory cleaning his weapons. Two other soldiers were there as well, prepping a few weapons for the squad. Shepard was already dressed in his full body armor and was busy securing his visor to his head. The blue screen flickered to life as it was set in place over the commander's right eye.

Wordlessly, the four of them stepped off the elevator, the doors hissing shut behind them, and headed over to the armory. Amalia watched as the two humans and the asari chose their weapons. Kaidan went for his usual pistol and assault rifle. Ashley grabbed an assault rifle as well and also made sure to grab a sniper rifle as well.

The female biotic watched Liara, curious to see what she would grab. The asari elected for a submachine gun and a pistol. Smaller weapons, but easier to handle. This only reminded Amalia that Liara was an archeologist. Had she ever been in a fight in her life? Every asari was trained in school on how to use their biotics, but never for violence. Amalia couldn't help but wonder how she would handle herself in a fight.

Amalia went off to the side and proceeded to stretch her muscles in preparation for the upcoming mission. Shepard, after arming himself, then started to fill them in on their current mission. The female biotic listened intently, but found her thoughts straying to Liara.

She may have biotics, but that doesn't mean that she can handle herself in a fight. Silently, Amalia told herself that she would make sure to watch her back on the mission. We'll see if the asari even needed Amalia's watchful eye at all.

The commander led his squad through the halls of the MSV Ontario, vigilant for any sign of danger. The other four followed him, weapons draw and biotics at the ready.

Apparently a group of biotic extremists had captured Chairman Burns from the Systems Alliance Parliamentary Subcommittee for Transhuman Studies. They are holding him hostage somewhere on board the Ontario, protesting his vote against providing reparations for L2 biotics.

Amalia had heard enough about the L2 implants from Kaidan, who had them as well. The fact that someone actually voted against compensation for these poor people who have to endure horrible pain induced by these implants is unbelievable. Amalia couldn't help, but feel that they were justified in taking this man hostage. They obviously felt they had no options left since they were being ignored. But yet, it was still wrong to threaten this man's life just to get what you want.

The female biotic sighed inwardly. This mission was so gray.

They had boarded the Ontario with little trouble. The squad had made their way through the numerous hallways and rooms, but had yet to encounter a single biotic. They had searched nearly the entire ship and were now making their way to the main cargo hold, where they were starting to suspect the extremists were holed up.

Shepard stopped just outside the large door, omni tool at the ready as he hacked the door. When it was finished, the pad on the door turned from a deep red to a bright green. The commander turned to look at his squad to see if they were ready for the fight that was surely on the other side of the door. Each of them nodded. Without a word, Shepard turned and opened the door.

The large door hissed open into the massive cargo bay. The area was littered with stacks and piles of crates both large and small. Taking refuge behind these crates were what had to be at least twenty biotic extremists, their own pistols and biotics at the ready.

As soon as the door opened, the extremists opened fire on the small squad with bullets and biotic blasts alike. Ashley and Kaidan ducked behind the frame on either side of the door. Shepard, Liara and Amalia managed to roll to cover behind some nearby crates. When they were safely in cover, the squad returned fire on the extremists.

Amalia's biotics hummed to life as they surrounded her in a familiar blue aura. Her biotics grabbed hold of three of the nearest biotics, raising them off the ground. The extremists exclaimed in surprise and tried to break free, but to no avail. Amalia's biotics held them in an iron tight grip. Then, swiftly, the female biotic threw them into a nearby stack of crates. The crates toppled to the ground, threatening to crush the biotics under their weight. Quickly, Amalia's biotic's reached out and grabbed the five or so crates out of the air, levitating them in the air just above the unconscious biotics. Carefully, the dark haired woman set the crates off to the side. A few nearby extremists who had seen the act appeared confused by the action, but soon resumed their attack.

Amalia ducked back down behind her cover, her back pressed against the cool surface of the crate. She let the blue aura of her biotics fade for now while she wasn't using them.

She couldn't kill these people. They were just desperate. That didn't mean that they deserved death. She silently vowed that she wouldn't kill any of them if she could help it.

It seemed that Kaidan felt the same way. Amalia observed him firing shots from his pistol and sending blasts of his biotics intended only to slow them down, keep them back, or distract them. Amalia was pleased when she saw him putting some of the things he learned from her in his lesson to use, such as using precision.

Liara was also holding her own, pummeling the extremists with her biotics in strategic spots and using her submachine gun to force them back. Amalia was surprised. The archeologist knew how to fight and was clearly no stranger on how to use a gun. The biotic couldn't help but wonder why the asari would know such skills when excavating for Prothean ruins and artifacts.

The sound of bullets hitting the metal of the crates drew Amalia out of her thoughts as she ducked further down behind her shelter. She saw Shepard duck behind the crate, narrowly missing a bullet in his chest. His head shifted to look at Amalia. "Can you get rid of their guns?" he shouted over the sound of gunfire.

Amalia's biotics flared to life once more as she nodded. The hail of bullets stopped for a moment and the squad seized their chance. They returned fire as they covered Amalia as she rose and used her biotics to rip the pistols out of the extremist's hands. She briefly considered turning their own weapons on them as she had done at the Kierlack Arena, but instantly decided against it. There was a chance that they were desperate enough to not submit and force her hand. Besides, they may be able to block any gunfire from the guns in the same way she can. There's no way to know for sure. Amalia took the newly acquired guns and tossed them harmlessly to the side. The extremists instantly recovered from their brief moment of surprise and began to pummel them with their biotics. They actually seemed to be more confident because they slowly began to walk towards the squad, continuing to blast them with their biotics. Amalia and Liara continued to hammer them back with their own biotics but they just kept inching closer.

"Shepard!" Ashley called, firing off a few rounds from her rifle at the approaching extremists. "I see a room at the back of the cargo bay! That could be where their holding the chairman!" She pointed past the encroaching group of biotics and the piles of crates to a small door at the far end of the cargo bay.

The commander nodded and turned to look at Amalia and Liara. "Could you use your biotics to get us over there?" he asked, ducking lower behind the crate as a biotic blast slammed into it.

The asari and the female biotic nodded. "I can make a shield to repel any biotics, but you won't be able to use your guns and I can't attack."

"Don't worry. Kaidan and I can take care of it," Liara called as another blast smashed into their cover. The asari looked to the male biotic behind her who nodded his agreement.

Suddenly, the biotics swept their shelter away from them, sending the crates spinning off to the side where they crashed into other stacks and causing them to topple to the ground. The extremists mustered as much energy as they could and focused them into their attacks as they threw everything they had at the exposed squad.

But it never reached them. Amalia's biotic formed something like a shield around them and repelled the attempted attacks. The extremists seemed to hesitate when they realized that their attacks were ineffective. That was when Kaidan and Liara fought back. Able to reach the extremists through the biotic shield, the two of them pummeled them with their biotics. They threw them every which way as they forced them away from the small group. The extremists, even though their attacks were ineffective, continued to hammer the biotic shield, obviously hoping to overwhelm and tire Amalia until she was unable to keep it up anymore. The thing was that she could do this for a lot longer than they thought.

Slowly but surely, the small squad began to make their way through the cargo bay. Amalia kept up the shield, her hands extended above her head as if she was physically holding it up. Shepard and Ashley walked beside her, weapons still drawn and at the ready as the eyed the extremists warily. Kaidan and Liara continued to beat the other biotics back and keep them from getting to close to the shield.

After a few tense moments, the squad finally reached the far side of the cargo bay, the extremists still close on their heels and more determined than ever to take them down. Amalia opened a side of the shield to allow Shepard to get out and run over to the locked door. Immediately, his omni tool flared to life as he began to hack the lock. Amalia reposition the biotic shield so that it filled up the archway that led to the small area where the squad was taking shelter. Kaidan and Liara continually forced the extremists back while Ashley ducked into cover behind another group of crates and readied her assault rifle.

"Got it!" Shepard called.

"You go, Shepard! We'll cover you from here," Ashley shouted.

The commander shifted his gaze from the door to the extremists and finally to the female soldier. "Are you sure?" he asked sounding slightly hesitant.

"Yeah, we'll be fine here," Liara answered. "Go help the chairman."

Shepard nodded. "Kaidan. You're with me."

Wordlessly, Kaidan stopped his attack and rushed to his commander's side, drawing his assault rifle. "Yes, sir."

Amalia took shelter behind a crate of her own, the shield still up as Liara got into cover as well, and watched the commander and lieutenant ready themselves to enter the room. Then, in one swift move, the door opened and Shepard and Kaidan walked in with their weapons drawn, the door hissing shut behind him.

"Now what?" Ashley asked. She flinched instinctively as a biotic blast rushed towards her, but instead collided with Amalia's biotic shield.

"I don't know. Is there some way we can pacify them until Shepard gets back?" The female biotic asked.

"How? It doesn't look like they really would care about anything we have to say at the moment," Liara shouted.

"Ash?" The gunnery chief looked over at the female biotic. "You do have some concussive rounds with you, don't you?"

Ashley nodded, quickly brushing her long hair behind her ear. "What're you thinking?"

"I'm going to take down the shield. When I do, use a concussive round to knock them down. Liara?" The asari looked at her. "Can you do something similar with your biotics?"

"Of course," she answered, a slight smile in her voice as she realized what her plan was.

"Okay," Amalia breathed, jerking her head to the side to get another pesky lock of black hair out of her eyes. "One….two….three….now!"

The shield came down in a rush. The extremists were happy to see that the shield was down and were more than eager to begin attacking those before them. Then, Ashley and Liara attacked. Both a concussive and a biotic blast exploded into their midst, sending them flying to the ground. A few biotic attacks from the extremists managed to be released before Ashley and Liara's attack. Amalia quickly blocked them from finding their mark with her biotics. At the same time, the female biotic prevented any crates from falling on the disoriented biotics.

Before the extremists could regain their footing, Amalia's biotics clamped down around them, preventing any further movement. A few of them growled in anger as they tried to use their biotics to attack them, but to no avail. The dark haired woman's biotics held them tightly to the ground and absorbed any attempt to use their biotics.

Both Liara and Ashley rose from their cover in amazement as they watched the fifteen or so extremists squirm underneath their biotic restraints.

Ashley was the first to speak up. "How long can you keep this up?" she asked, not bothering to hide the surprise from her voice.

Amalia crossed her arms over her chest as she shrugged. "Long enough for Shepard to finish up," she answered simply.

"Speak of the devil."

Amalia turned to look at the gunnery chief and followed her gaze behind them to where Shepard, Kaidan, and two other men stood. The first was dressed in fine clothing while the other wore worn looking clothes. Obviously the first man was Chairman Burns while the other must have been the leader of the extremists.

The extremist leader came forward a few steps, a look of utter shock on his face as he looked out at the biotics secured onto the floor. Ashley hesitated a little as she saw him come forward and started to bring up her rifle, but stopped when she saw Shepard wave it down. The leader's eyes shifted from the fallen biotics, to Ashley, Liara, and finally rested on Amalia. "Are they alive?" he asked carefully, his voice laced with concern.

Amalia nodded. "They're alive." The extremist leader allowed himself a sigh of relief. "I'll release them if you can make sure to keep them from attacking us again."

"Yes. Yes, of course," he agreed.

The dark haired woman nodded. With that, the blue aura around her body faded as her biotics became dormant once again. Newly released, the biotics slowly climbed to their feet. With a quick thank you, the extremist leader rushed forward to help them up and make sure they didn't resume their attack.

"What happened in there?" Liara asked, turning to Shepard.

The commander shrugged. "I just explained to them that they still needed the chairman's political connections if they were ever going to get the compensation they deserve," he told them. John Shepard turned to the male biotic beside him. "Kaidan. Can you please escort Chairman Burns to his shuttle? I've already notified the Alliance. They'll be here soon to pick him up along with the extremists."

Kaidan nodded. "This way." The male biotic gestured ahead of him as he led him through the cargo bay and towards the airlock where the chairman's shuttle sat waiting.

"Ashley." The female soldier turned at the sound of her name. "Keep an eye on them," Shepard ordered.

"Sure thing, Skipper," Ashley smiled as she turned back to watching the extremists.

Amalia and Liara both choked back a laugh. "Skipper?" Amalia asked with a grin.

"I didn't realize we were allowed to refer to you by nicknames," the asari smiled.

Shepard cleared his throat in embarrassment. "Yes, well, don't think this means you can start calling me by nicknames." With that, he walked past them to go and talk to the extremist leader.

Amalia and Liara stood side by side as they observed the extremists before them. While she was scanning the scene, Amalia spotted a young male biotic off to the side who was struggling to rise to his feet. Without a word, the female biotic strode in his direction. The biotic noticed her approaching and watched her with a wary eye as she knelt before him.

"Where does it hurt?" she asked, looking him squarely in the eye.

He blinked his dark brown eyes in surprise. He pointed to the lower part of his leg. "My ankle." He said after a moment's hesitation. "I can't put any weight on it."

Amalia nodded and moved her hands to begin inspecting his ankle. She didn't claim to be a world renowned physician, but she did know a few things that she had picked up over the years.

As she worked, the biotic continued to watch her carefully. Finally, he asked, "why are you helping me?"

"Because you're hurt," she answered very simply, not taking her eyes off his ankle. He flinched as her fingers touched the wound carefully, trying to determine how bad it was and how large the wounded area was. Her bright blues eyes flicked up to find his. "Sorry," she apologized before she continued working.

"You know what I mean. It's not that black and white," he said with a tightness to his voice.

"Actually, in this case it is. You were hurt so I came over to help," Amalia said with an equal hardness to her voice.

"But we were enemies just a minute ago."

"Exactly. That was then and this is now. Now be quiet. You're distracting me," the dark haired woman said gently.

The male biotic jerked in surprise, but didn't say anything more. Instead he let Amalia examine his ankle without anymore interruptions.

After a minute or so, Amalia straightened from her bent over position over his leg and looked him square in the eye. "Well, it looks like it's only a sprain. You should be fine in no time," she said with a friendly smile. "You just need to keep your weight off of it for now."

"Duh." The male biotic rolled his eyes.

Amalia laughed. "I know right." Her blue eyes darted around until they rested on Liara. The asari had apparently followed her example and busying herself with helping a biotic who had a gash on his head. "Liara! Can you give me a hand over here?"

The asari glanced in her direction, nodded, and got to her feet. In a few long strides, Liara stood before her.

"Can you help me? He's got a bad ankle," Amalia said.

"Sure, but-"

She was cut off as Kaidan came jogging back into the cargo bay. "An Alliance cruiser just pulled up," he informed everyone.

"Alright," Amalia returned her attention to the injured biotic before her. "Let's get him onto the ship." Together, the two of them hauled him to his feet, supporting him on either side. Amalia could feel his muscles tense under her hands and she knew it wasn't just from the effort it took to move. He was scared of going to jail. With a comforting hand on the biotic's back, Liara and Amalia helped the man onto the Alliance cruiser.

Amalia sat in one of the seats on the shuttle back to the Normandy, looking out the window at the endless expanse of space. Her conscience had been slightly appeased when she heard that Chairman Burns wasn't going to press charges and was going to do everything in his power to see that none of them had to do jail time.

"Amalia?"

The female biotic visibly jerked out of her thoughts and turned to Liara who was sitting next to her. "What?"

"I was wondering…some of the stuff that I saw you doing back on the Ontario was really incredible. I was kind of hoping that you could teach me a few things…," she said carefully.

Amalia smiled. "You seem to be doing fine without any special training from me. You really held your own out there. I thought you were an archeologist."

Liara smiled back. "I am. But my mother made sure that I was trained to defend myself by some of the soldiers in her employ," the asari explained. "Besides, aren't you training Kaidan?"

"Yeah, well, he needs a lot more help than you," the female biotic laughed, making sure to say it loud enough for Kaidan to hear.

Sure enough, the male biotic heard her and threw a half serious, half fake dirty look in her direction, but said nothing.

"Still, I would really like to learn. That way I could be of more use to Shepard," Liara explained in a quieter tone.

After a moment, Amalia sighed heavily and reached up a hand to tuck a few stray strands of hair behind her ear. "Before I know it, I'm going to be teaching a class," she murmured under her breath. "Alright, fine. We'll start tomorrow."


	10. Training Day

6

As she had began with her first lesson with Kaidan, Amalia stood opposite Kaidan and Liara in the cargo bay. Also the same as last time, Garrus was busying himself with the calibrations on the Mako and Ashley was sitting on one of the nearby storage crates to watch. Apparently she had enjoyed the last training session so much that she had decided to come down anytime she could to watch.

Amalia began the lesson by, at the request of Kaidan, warning them that she would be continuously attacking them in an effort to make it second nature for them to anticipate, block, and counter a surprise attack. Liara seemed to agree with Amalia, much to Kaidan's exasperation.

Next, Amalia summarized what she had taught Kaidan in the first lesson, as much to teach it to Liara as to make sure that Kaidan remembered. She talked about using precision attacks to take down an enemy and conserve energy. She also talked about pressure points, making sure to test Kaidan to see if he could remember where they were and what they did. Amalia was pleasantly surprised when Liara was able to name a few pressure points. Apparently the soldiers in her mother's employ had made sure to teach her that as well.

After the review part of the lesson was over, the actual physical portion began. Kaidan and Liara made it their goal to try to take down Amalia. They switched between working together and attacking separately to try and catch her off guard. Neither tactic worked. Amalia easily deflected their attacks with her own biotics. She only used her biotics when they got too close, though. For the rest of the time, Amalia elected to merely dodge their attacks.

Throughout the lesson, the dark haired woman made sure to repeatedly attack them from all directions. So far, they hadn't been able to deflect a single one of the surprise attacks.

The three of them engaged and disengaged in a wild flurry of attacks, counters, parries, and blocks. They moved around the cargo bay in a strange sort of dance. For hours on end, they sparred. Kaidan and Liara never seemed to gain any ground on her through any of the time they fought. It was clear that Amalia was well trained. That was probably part of the reason why she was the one teaching them.

Finally, as Liara made another lunge at Amalia, the female biotic launched another surprise attack at the asari's back. For the first time ever, Liara anticipated her attack and blocked it. Amalia smiled and let her biotics fade. Liara, seeming to not know that the lesson was over for now, continued her attack. In one swift movement, Amalia leaped out of the way and out of her reach.

The asari stopped her attack when she noticed the broad smile on Amalia's face. Kaidan was just off to the side, stooped over with his hands on his knees. Sweat creased both their brows and their chests heaved from the lessons exertion. Amalia on the other hand wasn't even out of breath.

"You did it," she grinned, her voice on the brink of laughter.

Liara straightened suddenly, as if she just realized what she had done. "I did?" she asked in a perplexed tone.

Amalia nodded vigorously. "Yes! You anticipated the surprise attack and it appears you even did it without thinking about it. I told you it would become second nature!" she grinned happily. The dark haired woman turned to look at Kaidan. "I told you there was a reason behind those attacks," she threw at him.

The male biotic's chest shook with laughter as he straightened to his full height. "Okay, okay. I take it back. It is possible to learn to anticipate a surprise attack," he conceded.

"But how did I do that?" Liara asked, sounding as if she was in a state of shock about what she accomplished.

Amalia continued to smile as she answered. "Because everyone has a pattern and you must have begun to learn mine. You really are a fast learner, Liara," the female biotic stated proudly.

The asari blushed with the compliment, the color darkening her light blue cheeks. Her bright blue eyes darted to Kaidan and back to Amalia, practically dancing with excitement.

"What do you mean 'your pattern?'" the lieutenant asked, coming forward a few steps.

"Everyone knows only so many tricks or abilities. They have a limit to how many of them they can use before they use a certain ability twice. Once that happens, they begin to fall into a pattern and you can use that to your advantage. You can counter, block, and attack them because you know how they will react. You can even anticipate what they will do next. That's what you just did, Liara. You learned my fighting style and was able to anticipate when and where I was going to attack you," Amalia explained.

"It may be true that people have a certain fighting style or pattern, but that doesn't mean that you'll always know how they'll react. And besides, while you're fighting someone, aren't they learning your pattern, too?" Kaidan inquired.

"Both true. Firstly, people can surprise you in how they react to whatever you chose to do next. Your job is to either continue attacking until you learn every possible reaction. Or your best bet is to attack and prepare yourself for whatever comes next. You can't anticipate a person's every move and every attack you make, you're gambling on whether or not your enemy will be able to withstand or counter it," Amalia explained. She paused for a moment to make sure that they were still with her before continuing. "Secondly, there is always going to be a possibility that they other person is learning your fighting style as well. The thing that you need to work on is increasing your repertoire of skills that you can use in a fight and the speed at which you can identify your opponent's style. Using your environment to your advantage helps, too. It aids in catching your enemy off guard," the female biotic finished.

"We're not going to be quizzed on this, are we?" Kaidan asked teasingly.

"I feel like I should have been taking notes," Liara smiled.

"All you had to do was listen. Whether or not you chose to use what I teach you to your advantage is your choice entirely. Just don't forget that you were the ones that begged me to teach you a few things," Amalia grinned.

The asari laughed lightly. "Right, sorry. I'll be sure and remember."

"Good." Amalia nodded.

"I didn't beg," Kaidan said simply. He said it under his breath but just loud enough for her to hear.

Amalia rolled her eyes.

"So, now what?" Liara asked.

"Well, you two can go and have a bit of a break. Get some water or something to eat and rest. Just be back here in about a half hour or so," the female biotic stated.

"Sure thing," Kaidan answered.

Together, he and Liara walked away from Amalia, headed into the elevator, and disappeared from sight when the doors hissed shut behind them. When they were gone, the female biotic walked over to join Ashley and Garrus by the Mako. She hopped up onto one of the storage crates next to the gunnery chief and crossed her long legs.

"You seem pleased with yourself," Ashley commented upon seeing the dark haired woman's wide grin.

"Why wouldn't I be? The fact that she was able to block that attack just shows that I actually know what I'm doing," Amalia explained with a broad smile on her lips.

"Who could've guessed that would happen," Garrus commented from the other side of the Mako.

"Be quiet, Garrus," the female biotic called, still smiling.

"Oh!" Amalia turned to look at Ashley and saw her reaching on the other side of her to grab something. When she turned back around, she held a bright red apple in her hand. "Here." The female soldier tossed the apple to Amalia. "I thought you could use something to eat, too."

"Thanks," the dark haired woman said gratefully. She turned the shiny fruit over in her hands as she examined it. "When did you get this?"

"While you were busy doing your training," Ashley said. "I went into the mess hall with the intention of looking for popcorn, but guess what? They don't exactly keep popcorn in stock on an Alliance warship."

Amalia laughed lightly. "Aren't you worried that you missed something good while you were gone?" she taunted with a sly smile.

"Not really. Garrus filled me in on the details when I got back." The gunnery chief gestured to the turian who, at the moment, was busying himself with the Mako's gun calibrations on a nearby computer.

"Him?" the biotic asked incredulously, as she pointed at the sniper. "He wasn't watching. He was on the other side of the Mako working. He couldn't even see what was happening."

"It's called multi-tasking. Perhaps it's a skill you should learn," Garrus commented without looking up from the computer screen.

Amalia took a bite out of her apple with a large crunch. Her biotics flared to life, surrounding her body in a familiar blue aura. Just because she could, Amalia levitated the apple just above her index finger, spinning it as she did so. "So, Ash?" Amalia began, choosing to ignore Garrus' last statement. "Did you hear anything more about the biotic extremists from yesterday?"

"A little. There's not much change since the other day, but so far it looks like the chairman is sticking to his word. So far, he hasn't pressed charges against the biotics and I heard that he has resumed his fight for the L2's compensation. As far as I can tell, it looks like the biotics will only have to do a little jail time. Max time they could get would be about two to three years," Ashley informed her.

Amalia sighed with relief. "Good."

This caught Garrus' attention. "Good? Those extremists got off easy." The turian turned around to face the two women.

"Yeah," the biotic began slowly, rather confused about the sniper's reaction. "That's the good part."

"Those biotics should have to do a lot more time than two to three years," Garrus responded.

"What?" Amalia said in disbelief.

"They kidnapped Chairman Burns and tried to kill you. Don't you think that deserves even a little more jail time?" the turian asked.

"No, I don't. The chairman isn't pressing charges and I'm not holding a grudge against them for attacking us. I don't think that anyone else is either. Right?" The biotic turned to Ashley and so did Garrus.

The female soldiers eyes widened slightly in surprise at the sudden attention. "Umm," she began, looking between their faces. She turned to look at the armory just a short distance away. "I've got something…to do…over there," the brunette said slowly, as she pointed in the direction of the armory. Without another word, she was striding away from them.

"Ash!" Amalia called, the levitating apple falling into her hands as her biotics became dormant once again.

Ashley groaned and turned around halfway to her intended target. "Look. I don't really want to get in between this brewing argument that's going on here," she said, gesturing to the two of them. "Try not to drag innocent bystanders into the mix, too."

Amalia rolled her glowing blue eyes as the gunnery chief resumed walking to the sanctuary of the armory. "They were desperate," the biotic continued, trying to force the irritation from her voice. "They felt that they were being ignored and had no more options left."

"Yes, because I'm sure that warranted the kidnapping of one of the only men who could actually help them get what they need. I understand that they acted in desperation, but that's over. Now they need to pay the consequences for their actions," Garrus said strongly. As usual, his voice maintained its familiar cool and collected tone, but there was a hardness lacing his words. It was a kind of anger or annoyance

"I know that they broke the law, but doesn't it require leniency in some situations? These people didn't know what else to do. They undergo horrible pain on a daily basis and they feel like they're being ignored. They acted out because they thought it was the only way to make anyone listen to them. No one got hurt in the end and the only victim doesn't want to pursue charges. So, I think it is sound reasoning that they don't get any more than two to three years," Amalia stated in a final tone.

"The law does require leniency in some cases, but this isn't one of them," the turian said.

"Why not? They're not murderers and no one wants to file any charges against them! They're not criminals! They're just people desperate to be heard," the biotic said heatedly.

"Be that as it may, they still committed a crime. That makes them criminals. That means that they need to be punished for their crime. That also means that they need to do jail time equal to the severity of their crime and in this case I don't think it is," the sniper said strongly. After a brief pause, he scoffed and shook his head. "I don't understand why you're defending them. They may have been desperate but that doesn't excuse what they did," Garrus said, his mandibles twitching with residual irritation.

Amalia's eyes strayed down for a moment to the apple she clutched in her hands, her nails digging into the skin, before she returned her steady gaze to the turian before her. "Because I believe that everyone deserves a second chance," she stated strongly. "Everyone makes mistakes and deserves the chance to put them right."

Garrus was silent for a moment as he considered her words. Finally, he gave a breathy laugh and shook his head again. "Alright. I don't think that this argument even has a factor in how much time in jail time the extremists get so there's no point in continuing it." Amalia nodded in agreement. "This doesn't mean I agree with you, though," he added.

Amalia smiled sadly. "I know. We can't be expected to agree on everything."

There was a brief moment of silence.

"So?" Garrus began.

The biotic arched an eyebrow quizzically. "What?"

"Aren't you going to apologize?" he asked, a smirk evident in his voice.

Amalia's jaw dropped. "What?!" she exclaimed.

She gripped her apple tightly in her hand and threw it as hard as she could at the turian. Garrus turned just in time to have the fruit collide with the back of his armor. When he turned back around, the sniper was chuckling.

"What was that for? All I asked for was an apology," he teased.

"Yeah! And you're not going to get one you big jerk!" Amalia threw at him. Her biotics snapped up the discarded apple from the ground and she prepared to throw it at him again.

"Alright, alright! Calm down! Stop throwing fruit at me," he said, holding up his hands to ward off any potential projectiles that Amalia would launch at him.

Amalia's eyebrows narrowed as she slowly lowered the apple, where she had it poised above her head. "That's right. Live in fear of me," she said with a mischievous smile.

"What a beautiful friendship we have," Garrus smiled as he returned his hands to his side.

"Damn right," the biotic smiled.

Ashley stood just off to the side of the armory, discreetly listening to their argument and its resolution. She couldn't help but smile to herself as she crossed her arms over her chest. Those two were made to be friends.

The gunnery chief paused in her observations when she heard the elevator door open behind her. She turned around just in time to see Kaidan and Liara come walking up to her.

"Did we miss anything?" Kaidan asked with a smile.

Ashley shrugged. "Oh, nothing much."

A/N: Aww! It's Amalia and Garrus' first argument. I just want to make a point in saying that I thought it was very important for them to disagree on certain things and argue because they are real people with different personalities. **No one** agrees on everything with another person, no matter how close they are. I felt that by including an argument it not only showed progress in their relationship and allowed for character development, but it also showed that they are two different people and are not going to love each other 100% of the time. I just felt the need to say that because I feel like a real relationship includes real arguments and disagreements.

Thanks for listening to my rant. As usual, PLEASE give me some reviews to let me know what you think! It encourages me to write and post chapters more often!

_**HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO EVERYONE!**_

_**HAPPY NEW YEAR (So glad the world didn't end on the 21**__**st**__**)!**_


	11. Girl's Day

7

A knock on Amalia's door caused her to turn from rifling through her duffel bag. "Come in," she called.

At that, the door hissed open to admit Tali. The quarian stood just inside the door, not allowing it to close. "Hey. You ready?"

"Almost…got it!" Amalia pulled out a worn, tan shoulder bag from her bag and proceeded to sling it over her shoulder. She rose from her crouched position and gently pushed her duffel bag back under her bed with her foot. "Now I'm ready," she smiled as she went to join the quarian girl. The two of them then began to walk down the hall towards the elevator.

"Are you ever going to use the closet they gave you instead of keeping everything in that bag of yours?" Tali asked curiously, cocking her head slightly to the side as she looked sideways at the biotic.

"Probably not. I like having everything in one place," Amalia said simply.

"But won't it be in one place if you put it in your closet?" Tali inquired further.

"I don't have any problem with where it is now, so that's where it's staying," the dark haired woman answered.

The two of them reached the elevator. The door opened and the quarian and the biotic climbed inside, the door closing behind them. Tali reached over to the pad and punched the button for the CIC.

"So where are Ashley and Liara?" Amalia asked, trying to start the conversation again.

"They said they would wait for us on the docks," the mechanic answered.

Amalia nodded in response.

For the first time in several weeks, the Normandy had returned to the Citadel. For both Amalia and Liara, it was their first shore leave since coming aboard. Due to that fact, Ashley had insisted that they have a girl's day. So far, she hadn't even specified what they would be doing. Amalia made sure to bring her credit chit, though, just in case.

The elevator arrived at the CIC and the door opened. The two girls stepped out of the elevator and almost ran into Wrex.

The massive krogan turned around to face them. "Watch where you're going. Don't want to step on you by mistake," Wrex said roughly.

"I think you're overestimating your size, Wrex," Tali said.

"Maybe he's compensating for something," Amalia whispered to Tali, just loud enough for the bounty hunter to hear.

"Watch it, Amalia. That's below the belt-literally," the krogan laughed.

Shepard appeared around the side of the massive bounty hunter. "You're not trying to pick a fight with Wrex, are you?" he asked.

"No, never," Tali answered innocently.

"'Cause, if I had to, I'd bet that Amalia would win in a fight," the commander smiled.

"What?!" both Amalia and Wrex exclaimed in disbelief.

"SO!" Tali began, trying to change the subject as she rubbed the back of her hooded head awkwardly. "How are you spending your shore leave, Shepard?"

Shepard laughed softly as he looked at the quarian mechanic. "I don't get a shore leave. I actually have work to do while we're here."

"That's too bad. You look like you could use some down time," Tali said, a smile evident in her voice.

"You have no idea," Shepard laughed. He glanced over at the krogan and the biotic were busy arguing about who would win in a fight.

"Are you just taking Wrex with you?" the quarian asked, trying to keep up the conversation.

"Umm," the commander returned his gaze to Tali, "No. I'm taking Kaidan with me, too. We're actually waiting on him now." The mechanic nodded. "So what are your plans?"

"Oh, Amalia and I are heading out to meet Ashley and Liara. Ashley said something about a girl's day," Tali answered, shrugging her shoulders.

Shepard chuckled. "Have fun with that."

"This isn't over, Wrex," Amalia said, pointing a finger menacingly at the krogan as they turned back to face the commander and the quarian.

"I'd hope not, squishy," Wrex laughed.

The biotic scowled but said nothing. Instantly, a pleasant smile was on her face. "So, should we go?"

"Oh yeah," Tali said, as if she had just remembered.

Amalia smiled inwardly. She had been so absorbed in her conversation with Shepard that she actually seemed to be in a daze when coming out of it.

"Well," Amalia grabbed hold of the quarian's shoulders and began to lead her towards the airlock. "You and your entourage should make sure to have some fun on your shore leave," she said.

Shepard laughed. "Oh, don't worry. We will. You guys have fun, too."

"Sure thing, Shepard," Tali called.

With that, the women went out the airlock door and were gone from the commander's sight. They emerged outside the Normandy and onto the Citadel. Amalia looked up in wonder. Something she wasn't sure she could ever get used to is looking up into the sky and seeing an upside down city above her. Then again, the arm of the Citadel she was on right now probably looked like it was upside down to them.

Amalia shook her head and turned her gaze on the quarian girl next to her, a wide grin on her face.

Tali noticed her staring and looked at her. "What?" she asked in a mix of confusion and defensiveness.

"Look at you! You're practically giddy," the biotic said, struggling to keep back a laugh.

"Giddy?"

"Oh, c'mon! You're practically bubbling with excitement over being able to talk to Shepard," Amalia smiled.

"What?!" Tali exclaimed in utter shock. "I am not!"

"Yeah, right. You were fine before we went into the CIC. Now, coming out of it, you're bursting with happiness. There's even a happy skip to your step," the biotic said.

"There is not," Tali declared defensively.

Amalia outwardly laughed when she saw the quarian girl obviously trying to focus on getting rid of the 'happy skip.' "Alright, Tali. There isn't." The biotic thought she saw the mechanic's shoulders sag slightly in relief. "But." The tension was back in her shoulders. "Sooner or later, you're going to have admit it to someone. And, I want to be that person. Who knows, maybe I could even help you," Amalia shrugged, offering a supporting smile.

"Admit what?" Tali asked, playing innocent.

Amalia laughed and rolled her eyes. "You know what."

"Do we even have something in mind to shop for?" Amalia complained as she saw Ashley start to head into yet another store.

"Not really. It's called browsing," the gunnery chief called back. The brunette bent over a nearby kiosk and began to examine the store's wares.

The biotic groaned. She had never liked shopping. She liked to get in, buy what she wanted, and get out as fast as possible.

"What about you, Tali," Amalia heard Liara ask the quarian behind her. "Don't you have something in mind to buy?"

"Sort of. I need to find something for my Pilgrimage, but it needs to be something significant to the fleet," she answered. "I doubt I'll find something like that in a Citadel shop."

"You never know until you look," Ashley called from inside the store.

"Ash? Are you sure you're not a shopaholic or something?" Amalia teased with a smile, cocking an elegant black eyebrow.

"Pretty sure," the brunette answered in a serious tone, before turning back to the kiosk.

"I'm beginning to think that this 'girl's day' was just an excuse to drag us shopping," Liara said.

"Me, too," Tali agreed.

"Okay, fine." Ashley turned around and walked out of the store to join the small group. "What would you like to do?" she asked, placing her hands on her hips.

The three women were silent. They looked to one another for an idea, but it seemed that no one had one in mind.

"Just as I thought. Don't complain about what we're doing until you find something else to do," the gunnery chief said triumphantly, obviously glad that they could continue shopping.

Amalia groaned. "I bet everyone else is doing something actually fun today," she complained.

"What is everyone else doing today? Anybody know?" Liara asked, looking from one face to the next for an answer.

"Well, Shepard was dragging Wrex and Kaidan around the Citadel on business. I know that much," Tali said thoughtfully.

"What about Garrus?" The asari shifted her bright blue gaze to Amalia, knowing that she would know the answer.

The biotic shrugged as she placed her hands behind her head. "He told me he was going to have some drinks with some of his C-Sec buddies."

"Oh yeah. He told me that, too," Ashley seconded.

"So, like I said, everyone else is doing something more eventful than us," the dark haired woman said.

"Oh, stop your whining," Ashley said, waving off her comment.

"What about Joker? What does he do during shore leaves?" Liara inquired further.

Ashley was the one to answer. "He has to stay on the ship. He needs to be ready for whenever Shepard wants to leave," she explained.

Liara nodded her understanding.

"Well," Tali began, "If we're going to continue shopping, I'm going to go check in that store over there. Be right back." Without waiting for a response, the quarian turned and began to head into a store just a little ways down the path.

Ashley turned back to the asari and the biotic. "So? Is this your first trip to the Citadel?" she asked them.

"I've been here once, a long time ago," Amalia shrugged.

The gunnery chief shifted her gaze to the asari. "What about you, Liara?"

She nodded. "I've been here quite a few times for some conventions."

"Conventions?"

"For Prothean research. Scientists and all sorts of experts come from all over the galaxy to attend the convention and share what they've learned over the course of the year." Liara smiled joyously. "I look forward to it every year."

As the two of them talked, Amalia found her gaze wandering as she took in the sights of the Citadel. The many arms of the Citadel, which were actually massive cities populated by thousands of people. Skycars flew just above the tops of the lowest buildings and below the tallest ones, weaving their way through traffic and streets to reach their destination, their high pitched engines the ever present background noise to the Citadel. Massive warships patrolled the sky around the Citadel like watchdogs, vigilant for any threat to their beloved city. Large cargo ships lumbered towards the docks, weary from their long journeys as they sought to bring their wares to stores across the Citadel.

Slowly she found her gaze drifting down to the streets of the Citadel where assorted aliens walked side by side as they went about their daily business. But Amalia found her attention being drawn to two individuals, just visible off through the crowd.

Amalia turned and snapped her fingers, drawing Liara and Ashley out of their conversation. When she had their attention, she pointed through the crowd to the two feuding individuals. Instantly, the three women pushed their way through the masses and found themselves standing before Tali and a human C-Sec officer.

"I told you! I didn't steal anything!" Tali was yelling.

"Well, the shopkeeper is saying something different," the officer said in a hard tone.

"He's lying! This is just because I'm a quarian, isn't it?" Tali threw at him.

"That has nothing to do with it. Now if you'll come with me to-" the man began to reach out to grab the quarian girl.

"Whoa, whoa! She's not going anywhere," Amalia said angrily, walking up beside her friend and effectively cutting off the officer. Ashley and Liara were close behind, similar looks of anger on their faces.

"Excuse me, but this is a C-Sec matter. You have no business interfering," he said, obviously irritated by this new intrusion.

"What are the charges?" the gunnery chief asked sternly.

The C-Sec officer sighed. "A nearby shop keeper has accused her of stealing from his store. Besides, she's obviously a vagrant."

"No, she isn't," Liara told him defensively.

"Yeah, she's been shopping with us all day," Amalia said.

"There is still a possibility that she could have stolen something while you weren't looking," he added, growing more and more annoyed by their pestering.

"No, it isn't," Ashley said firmly. "We've been together the entire time."

"Look, ladies," the C-Sec officer said, holding up a hand to silence any more protests. "This is none of your business. I've got it handled. So you can just stop covering for her and continue shopping," he said scornfully.

Amalia had to restrain herself from punching him in the face. She did her best to take a calming breath before saying, "I'm making it my business, then. You're not taking her in for something she didn't even do." Her face was contorted into a fierce scowl, her eyebrows were pointed down like lightning bolts. She crossed her arms over her chest stubbornly, glaring at the C-Sec officer.

The man took a few menacing steps toward her, but Amalia didn't move. "And how about I run you in for obstruction of justice?' he asked menacingly.

"You can't do this!" Tali shouted at him.

"Can and will," he said with a threatening smile, not taking his eyes off Amalia when he answered.

Despite her fury, Amalia couldn't help but to think about their girl's day. She couldn't deny that there was some degree of hilarity to the fact that their first shore leave and girl's day was ending with them getting arrested by a narrow-minded C-Sec officer. She sighed inwardly. Oh, well. At least Shepard could use his Spectre authority to get them out once he found out what happened.

The C-Sec officer began to dig through his pockets for, what Amalia could only guess to be, handcuffs. Suddenly, a familiar voice made them all stop short.

"What is going on here?" They all turned to look behind them to see Garrus approaching.

Either, the officer recognized the C-Sec armor that turians on the force wore or he knew who Garrus was. The man, seeming slightly put off his game by Garrus' sudden appearance, pointed a finger at Tali. "This girl was accused of stealing." He shifted his finger to Amalia, who continued to scowl dangerously. "These women here wouldn't stop interfering with my investigation. This one in particular. I was going to run her in for obstruction of justice," he said.

Garrus walked up beside Tali and stopped. "Did you ever actually find anything on her that she supposedly stole?" he asked.

"Well…no. But I didn't get a chance before they came up and began interfering," he said, glaring at Amalia.

"That is a lie! He didn't even search me! He just came up, told me I was accused of stealing, and said I was under arrest!" Tali shouted, her voice outraged as she moved from looking at Garrus to the C-Sec officer.

Garrus, as level headed as ever, turned to look at the human officer. "Is this true? And don't lie and waste my time. We have three witnesses here," he said with what sounded like a bored sigh.

The C-Sec officer scowled furiously at Garrus, but the turian looked as if he couldn't even be bothered by it.

"Just as I thought. Now run along before I decide to report you," the sniper said threateningly.

With an irritated growl, the C-Sec officer turned on his heel and stormed off. In seconds, he was lost among the afternoon crowds of the Citadel.

Tali turned to the turian next to her. "Thanks, Garrus," the quarian said gratefully.

"It's no problem. That guy was out of line," he responded. He let out a small laugh. "Though, I can't help but to find it slightly funny that you and Amalia nearly got arrested on her first shore leave," he said, a smirk evident in his voice.

Amalia laughed. "That's what I was thinking, too."

"So? Now what?" Ashley asked.

"Well, as much as I would like to escort you around the Citadel and make sure you don't get arrested, I actually have somewhere to be," Garrus said.

"Oh, sure. Thanks again, Garrus," Tali thanked him once again.

Garrus nodded. With a small wave at the rest of them, he turned and headed into the crowd.

"Alright. No one answered my question." Tali, Amalia, and Liara turned to look at Ashley. "What are we going to do now? Should we keep shopping?"

Tali let out a long, slow groan. "After what just happened, I'd really rather not."

"So then what do you propose?" the brunette asked, arching an eyebrow questioningly.

"How about a movie?" Liara suggested.

"Oh! I like that idea!" Tali said happily. She instantly pulled up her omni-tool and began to search for movies, theaters, and show times.

"Umm…I'd rather not," Ashley said slowly.

"Why not?" Tali asked, looking up from her omni-tool.

"She's probably just wants to keep shopping," Liara said with a small smile.

"No. That's not it. It's just that Shepard could call us back to the Normandy at any time. I don't want to pay for and sit down for a movie and then have to leave in the middle of it when he calls. I only like to see a movie when I know I'll be able to see it from start to finish," the gunnery chief told them.

"I don't mind," the asari said.

"Me either," the quarian agreed as she resumed scanning through her omni-tool.

"Amalia?"

The dark haired woman looked at Liara. She smiled sheepishly and shrugged. "Sorry, but I'm with Ash on this one. I only like to pay for a movie that I know I'll be able to see the whole way through."

Liara sighed as she turned back to the quarian girl. "Well, looks like it's just you and me, Tali," she said. She briefly looked back at Ashley and Liara. "What about you two?"

The gunnery chief and the biotic exchanged a look. "We'll go to Chora's Den for some drinks. If Shepard doesn't call us back by the time the movie is over, you can come and find us there," Ashley reasoned.

Liara nodded. "Sounds like a plan."

Tali perked up. "They're showing Fleet and Flotilla at the theater down the street! If we run we can make it!" Her omni-tool faded as her arm fell to her side.

The quarian and the asari paused as they looked at Ashley and Amalia. "Oh, just go already," Amalia grinned, making a shooing gesture with her hands.

With broad smiles on their faces, the two women took off down the street, dodging passerby. Within no time at all, they disappeared into the crowd.

Ashley looked at Amalia. "Shall we?" she asked with a smile.


	12. Girl Talk

6

Ashley led the way as the two women crossed the threshold of Chora's Den. Amalia had never been to Chora's Den. In fact, she wasn't entirely sure if she had even passed by the entrance on the street. It wasn't that she had been outwardly avoiding it. It was simply the fact that she had never been to this part of the Citadel before. She was glad that Ashley had, otherwise the biotic was sure that they would have gotten lost.

The gunnery chief moved over to the bar, Amalia following, and took a seat on a barstool. Ashley gestured to the bartender and ordered them some drinks, but Amalia didn't notice. She was too busy taking in the interior of Chora's Den.

Aliens of all sorts interacted with one another, either sitting at a table enjoying a drink or lounging at the bar. Lights flashed and neon lights blazed within the bar. Bodies pulsed and moved to the beat of the music that was being blasted throughout. Scantily clad asari danced upon raised platforms and moved among the crowd, looking for tips.

Her thoughts were interrupted when she felt a nudge from Ashley's elbow. "You drink alcohol, right?" she asked. She started to slide small glass filled with a bright blue liquid in it towards her.

Amalia reached and wrapped her hand around the clear glass. She turned and offered the other woman a smile. "Only when there is a worthy occasion," she said.

Ashley smiled back and gripped her own glass, raising off of the counter towards her lips. "Why don't we drink now and come up with what the occasion was later?"

The biotic grinned. "Sounds like a plan to me."

The two women raised their glasses and swiftly downed the contents. The set their empty cups down onto the bar counter with a dull click. Amalia dipped her head slightly as the alcohol raced down her throat in a burning sensation.

"What was that?" Amalia asked, coughing a little.

Ashley smiled and cleared her throat, the alcohol singed her throat as well. "I'm not entirely sure. I just told the bartender to recommend something and send it this way."

"That's a little risky, don't you think?" Amalia said, still struggling with the burning sensation that the alcohol left behind.

The gunnery chief's smile broadened a little more. "What's life without a little risk?" she asked her teasingly.

"Safe," the biotic answered bluntly.

"That's boring. Taking risks makes life exciting," the brunette told her.

"And more dangerous," Amalia added.

Ashley's expression soured. "Wow. You're such a downer behind all of those smiles, aren't you?" Amalia shrugged. "I think we need to get you more alcohol." The brunette turned back towards the bar and waved to the asari bartender. "We'll have a few more rounds of whatever you just sent over," she called.

The bartender nodded in their direction. She ducked behind the counter and set about preparing their drinks.

"So, tell me your deepest darkest secret," Ashley said with a mischievous smile as she folded her arms onto the bar counter.

"What makes you think I would tell you something like that?" she asked.

"Because if you don't, then I will be forced to get you drunk enough to where you will tell me," she answered, her smile widening ever so slightly.

Amalia laughed. "You're welcome to try. But just so you know, I'm not a heavy drinker. This next drink will probably be my last."

Ashley frowned. "Why do you have to be so responsible? It's our shore leave."

"Well, someone has to be the designated driver after you're done," the biotic grinned.

The gunnery chief rolled her eyes. "Whatever." She turned as two more drinks were slid across the bar towards them. "Thanks," Ashley said, smiling at the bartender gratefully.

If Amalia didn't know better, she would have thought she saw the asari blush. Her bright blue eyes shifted to the woman seated next to her. She looked just in time to see her quickly down her second drink. Amalia thought about it, but wasn't entirely sure. She knew Ashley was religious, but perhaps… "Hey Ash?" The gunnery chief looked at her. Amalia gestured to the female bartender. "I think the bartender kind of likes you."

The gunnery chief's eyebrows raised in surprise. "Really?" She turned her head in the direction of the asari. The bartender noticed her gaze and smiled. Ashley turned back to Amalia. "Well, how 'bout that."

"Are you…interested?" Amalia asked carefully.

Ashley laughed. "Are you asking if I'm gay?" she grinned.

"Well…I was only asking…" Amalia said, feeling awkward. She fiddled with her fingers underneath the counter as her hands rested on her lap.

The brunette laughed softly once more. "Don't worry about it. I'm not offended or anything. To answer your question, no. I'm not gay or bisexual." She nodded towards the biotic next to her. "What about you?"

Amalia shook her head. "Nope. Totally straight."

"Alright. So men then?" Amalia smiled and nodded. "Okay, so what's your type?"

"My type?"

"Yes, your type. What are you looking for in a man?" Ashley asked with a small smile.

"I don't know. Are you trying to set me up or something?" the dark haired woman asked.

"Possibly."

"And what makes you think that I don't already have a boyfriend or something?"

"Do you?"

"Well, no…"

"Well then, what's your type?"

Amalia sighed and rolled her strange blue eyes. "I don't know. I've never really had a type."

"Everyone has a type," Ashley told her.

The biotic shrugged. "Not me. I don't really have any preferences."

"Yes you do. Maybe you just don't know what they are yet," Ashley offered thoughtfully. "Let's see…are you interested in aliens?"

Amalia's face went totally serious. "You're not going to set me up with a krogan, are you? It's not Wrex, is it? Tell me it's not Wrex."

Ashley let out a breathy laugh. "No, despite how perfect that relationship would be. But seriously, are you interested at all in men of other species?" she asked.

The dark haired woman shrugged once again. "I don't know. I guess."

"Alright. That's something to start with," the gunnery chief said, nodding her head. "What about race? Skin or scale color you like better than the rest?"

"Ash!" Amalia exclaimed. She cast a quick look around her to make sure no one heard that.

The brunette looked surprised by her reaction. "What? It was a simple question. I'm not judging."

"Well I am," the biotic said with a disbelieving laugh. She quickly tucked a few stray strands of black hair behind her ears.

"Don't be so sensitive," she admonished with a heavy sigh. She reached forward and grabbed Amalia's glass and quickly downed the contents.

Amalia laughed as she watched her drink her third glass of alcohol. "Is it actually possible for you to be drunk that fast?" she asked in incredulity.

"Not a chance. It takes time for it to work. It doesn't happen that fast," the gunnery chief answered.

"Maybe in this instance it did," Amalia smiled.

Ashley rolled her eyes. "You'll do whatever you can to dodge a question," she told her with a sigh. She propped her elbow up on the counter and rested her head on her hand as she looked at Amalia sideways. "Why is that?"

Amalia shrugged. "There are just some questions that I don't want to answer. But," she held up a finger and pointed it menacingly at the gunnery chief. This caused a smile to appear on the brunette's face. "In this case, I was not dodging. I genuinely don't have a detailed list of what I'm looking for in a man. I don't have any particular preferences."

"So…you don't know what you want," the gunnery chief said slowly.

The biotic nodded. "Pretty much. And I'm fine with that. I'm not really interested in having a relationship right now."

"Now, but what about later?" the other woman asked in a teasing tone.

Once again, Amalia shrugged. "I don't know. I'll know it when it happens." The biotic shifted her gaze to Ashley. "What about you? After you asked me all these questions, I feel like I should ask you what your type is now," she smiled.

Ashley let out a little laugh. She reached down and grabbed another glass of alcohol that had been delivered while they and been talking. She raised it to her lips. Then, with a snap of her wrist and a tilt of her head, the gunnery chief swiftly downed the cup's contents. With a grimace, she set the now empty glass back on the counter and turned to look at Amalia. "Well," she began, considering it thoughtfully. "He has to be tall. Dark hair. Blue eyes. I'm not opposed to scars. Brave and heroic. Oh! And he needs to be a good dancer."

Amalia burst out laughing. "Your type is Shepard!" she exclaimed, a wide grin on her face.

The gunnery chief looked at her with an utterly shocked expression. "He is not," she declared defensively.

"Oh, yes he is! He has dark hair and blue eyes. He's tall. He's brave and heroic. He even has that long scar on his head that goes into his hairline," Amalia told her, listing each one on her hand.

Ashley nodded with each one she said, obviously not arguing with her. "True. He is all those things. But, one thing he is not, is a good dancer."

"Really?" Amalia asked, cocking an elegant black eyebrow quizzically.

"Really. The man has no rhythm. You really should see it sometime. It's hilarious," the brunette smiled.

"I'll put it on my to-do list," Amalia said bluntly. She cocked her head slightly to the side as she regarded the gunnery chief, a faint smile still on her face. "Oh, come on. You cannot tell me that you never considered it."

Ashley bit her lower lip and shrugged. "I don't know. I guess, when we first met I was momentarily struck by him. But, it was nothing more than an attraction. There wasn't really anything there. Besides, I saw that someone else liked him a lot more than I did."

Amalia paused. _Is she talking about Tali?_ The biotic brushed another stray strand of black hair behind her ear. "Who likes him?" she asked slowly.

Ashley eyed her warily, obviously ensure of whether to tell her. "I'm not sure I should say. For her sake."

"I understand. It's just that, I know someone who likes Shepard, too. We may be thinking of the same person."

This caught the brunette's attention. "Really? Okay…umm…is it a certain quarian we know?" she asked slowly and carefully.

Amalia nodded vigorously, a wide grin breaking out onto her face. "Yes! I've been talking to her about it. I wasn't sure if anyone else had noticed."

The gunnery chief laughed. "Nope. Both Liara and I noticed it, too. Though, we haven't said anything to her yet. What have you been telling her?"

"Nothing much, yet. She keeps denying it, but I see the way she is when she's around him. There is no mistaking it. I've told her that she can come to when she's ready to confess, but I'm not entirely sure when that will happen," the biotic told her female companion.

Ashley nodded. "She has to admit to herself, and obviously us as well, that she likes him. Only then can we begin to help."

"If she even wants or needs our help," Amalia commented.

The brunette nodded. "True, true." She tilted her head slightly to the side as a thought came into her head. "Tali's young, isn't she?"

"Yeah, I think so."

"Do you think she's even…you know…been with a guy?"

"How should I know?"

"I don't know. I was just asking. Well, no offense to her, but I'm going to bet no. Isn't it kind of hard for quarians? You know, because they could get really sick if they take off their suits. Not to mention if they touched someone without it. It must be dangerous for them. So, like I said, I don't think she would have yet," Ashley said.

"Yeah," Amalia said, really drawing out the word slowly. "Umm, why don't we talk about something else besides Tali's love life?"

Ashley laughed. "Fair enough." She swiveled in her bar stool and looked behind them to where the dance floor was. "Do you want to dance?"

"Uhhh…" The biotic shifted her gaze in the direction of the crowd of people dancing on the crowded floor, moving to the beat of the music. "I don't know if I'm really in the mood."

"Oh, come on!" Ashley stood up and grabbed Amalia's arms. She began to pull her none too gently towards the dance floor. "Don't be such a downer. Besides, if you're in a bad mood, dancing will put you in a good one," she told her, having to shout as they came closer to the source of the music.

"I really don-" Amalia was cut off as both of the women's omni-tools flared to life, emitting a pale orange light.

The gunnery chief sighed with a smile and released Amalia's arm. "Saved by the bell."

Both of them lifted their omni-tools and read the message that had been sent to them. It was a simple one: All crew are to return to the Normandy, ASAP. After they finished reading, they turned off their omni-tools and exchanged a look.

"So much for our girl's day," Ashley said.

"Oh, it wasn't bad. It wasn't the greatest day of my life, but it wasn't bad," Amalia said, smirking. The gunnery chief laughed and gently pushed her in a playful manner. "Hey, at least we didn't go to the movie with Liara and Tali. I bet they're walking out of the theatre now."

"I wonder if any of the other people in the theatre are throwing food at them for obstructing their view or taking a message in the middle of the movie," Ashley grinned.

"We'll find out soon enough," the biotic answered.


	13. The New Deal

6

Upon returning to the Normandy, Ashley and Amalia went their separate ways. Amalia headed to her room, while the gunnery chief headed in the direction of the mess hall. The door hissed open and shut as the biotic walked in. She paused for a moment, taking in the view of the Citadel from her window. It truly was a magnificent city- or cities. Or even space station might be more appropriate. Not that it really mattered what she called it.

Amalia strode across the room, unslinging her shoulder bag from around her neck and throwing it onto her desk chair. She sat down on the edge of her bed and began to remove her boots. When she was finished, she set them side by side next to her bed and threw herself backwards onto her bed. She lifted her legs off the ground and crawled under the covers as she rolled over to look out her window. She laid there for about an hour, simply watching life on the Citadel carry on. They were probably waiting for everyone to return from each of their respective shore leaves. Amalia found herself wondering when they were going to take off.

She didn't have to wait much longer before the Normandy disengaged from its dock and soared away into the sky. Amalia watched with mild interest as the arms of the Citadel- entire cities- went past her window and were lost from sight. The Normandy flew past massive warships, lumbering cargo ships, and small passenger ships. All slowly passed from the limited range of Amalia's window as they sailed past and into the beyond.

She continued to lay there, briefly considering simply taking a nap, but decided she wasn't tired enough for such a thing. Amalia threw back the covers and rose into a sitting positions, letting her legs hang over the side of the bed. There wasn't much to do aboard the Normandy between missions. The things that she did to occupy her time were activities such as helping Liara with her prothean research, learning about engineering from Tali and Adams, training Kaidan and Liara on biotics use in the cargo hold, or sharing a cup of coffee with Ashley in the mess hall. Amalia never could seem to find the right way to spend time with Wrex and Shepard was always so busy. She did love to go to the cockpit and pester Joker whenever she could. But by far, her favorite thing to do was go and talk to Garrus.

The turian was easily Amalia's best friend. They spent any moment they could with each other and were never apart for more than a few hours. Amalia found him very easy to talk to and felt that she could tell him almost anything. Almost.

Rising from her bed, the biotic quickly slipped her boots back onto her feet. Once they were on, she strode from the room. At this time, her best bet would be to find Garrus in the main battery. She had wanted to check in after his shore leave to find out how it went.

As Amalia walked through the mess hall, she briefly glanced around. No sign of Ashley. She half wondered to herself where the gunnery chief was and what she was doing now that their "girl's day" was over. A part of her thought that perhaps she was already planning their next one.

Proceeding to pass through the mess hall, Amalia walked down the hallway that led to the main battery. When she came within a couple feet of the door, it hissed open and she strode through it.

Upon walking through, the biotic instantly noticed Garrus bent over a control panel, typing something in. He didn't even turn as he heard the door open and close. "Hello, Amalia," he said.

"How did you know it was me?" she asked innocently, a playful smile on her face. The dark haired woman crossed her arms over her chest as she awaited his reply.

"It's a gift. Let's call it a sixth sense," the sniper responded, the ever present smirk evident in his voice.

Amalia laughed lightly. "Let's not." She moved over to her right and sat down upon a spare storage crate in the corner. Letting her back rest against the cool metal wall, Amalia drew her legs up after her, resting them on top of the crate as well. "So how was your shore leave with your buddies?" she asked.

The turian uttered a scoffing laugh. He turned to look at her, momentarily pausing in his typing. "My buddies? Excuse me for thinking that you just asked that like I was some sort of child."

The dark haired woman grinned. "You're excused," she smiled. "So how'd it go?"

"Same as usual. Monty got drunk off his ass and tried to hit on some poor asari at the bar. I don't know what he said to her, but it must have been pretty bad considering how hard she hit him." Garrus shook his head before continuing. "Butler and his wife are apparently expecting another baby and Vortash got a promotion."

Amalia smiled. "Sounds fun. Seems like there were quite a few exciting announcements from some of your friends," she commented.

Garrus leaned back against the keyboard as he looked at the biotic. "No kidding. What about you? How did the rest of your 'girl's day' go? I trust that there were no more arrests after I left?" he asked with a smirk.

Amalia laughed and rolled her eyes. "No. No more arrests. Thank you again for helping us, if that's what you're fishing for."

"I wasn't fishing."

"Sure you weren't."

"I wasn't."

"Uh-huh."

Garrus scoffed and shook his head, his mandibles twitching a little. "So what did you guys end up doing?" he asked, restating his question.

Amalia leaned further back against the wall until it was flush with the metal surface. The biotic shrugged. "Nothing much. Ashley dragged us around the Citadel on a shopping spree."

"Did you get anything good?" the turian asked, crossing his arms over his broad chest.

Amalia raised her eyebrows as she looked up at the sniper. "Oh, no. I didn't say that we bought anything. Liara, Tali, and I just followed Ashley around as SHE shopped."

Garrus laughed lightly. "I see," he said in response.

"Then, as you know, we almost were arrested. After being 'rescued' by a certain turian Liara and Tali went to go and see a movie while Ashley and I went to a bar."

"It's so nice to be acknowledged," Garrus commented dryly.

The biotic's smile widened ever so slightly, but she ignored the comment. "Ash and I ended up staying at the bar until we ended up getting called back. And so ends the tale of the girl's day," Amalia finished with a broad grin.

"Sounds eventful. My favorite part was where a 'certain turian' saved you from jail time," he stated, a smirk evident in his voice.

Amalia arched an elegant black eyebrow. "Really? It wasn't mine."

The sniper's mandibles twitched. "Oh? And why's that?" he inquired.

The dark haired woman leaned her head back against the wall. "Have you ever heard the phrase 'silence is a virtue?'"

Garrus uttered a scoffing laugh. "Are you saying that you think that turian only helped you to boost his own ego?"

"Well, if he only helped us to be a good Samaritan, then he wouldn't have gone off and bragged to his friends about what he had just done," she answered with a wide smirk.

Garrus was about to open his mouth to answer but was interrupted as the door hissed open. The two of them turned just in time to see Shepard walk through the now open doorway. The commander strode confidently into the room. His gaze moved from Garrus, around the room, until they landed on Amalia and stayed there. Amalia fidgeted slightly under his gaze, feeling uncomfortable.

"Is there something we can help you with, commander?" Garrus asked, drawing Shepard's gaze.

A slight smile appeared on the commander's face. He jerked his thumb in the direction of the biotic. "I was actually hoping to borrow her for a moment," he answered.

The turian shrugged. "That's perfectly fine with me. She was distracting me from my work anyways." Garrus turned back around to face his keyboard and began typing once again, but not before he shot a smug looking in Amalia's direction, eliciting a scowl from her.

The dark haired woman rose from her perch upon the crates. Quickly straightening her clothing, she followed Shepard from the main battery and into the hallway beyond. Shepard stopped midway down the hall, just as the door to the main battery closed, giving them at least a tiny bit of privacy.

Amalia crossed her arms over her chest. "So what's going on?" she inquired, arching a dark eyebrow ever so slightly.

"I wanted to talk to you about our talk. From what I understand, you didn't think it went well," Shepard commented, crossing his own arms over his broad chest.

Amalia sighed and rolled her eyes. "Ashley talked to you," she said as more a statement of fact than question.

"Yes, and I'm glad she did. I don't want you to start doubting your place on the Normandy. I will not throw you off unless you commit some heinous act," the commander assured her.

The biotic sighed once again. "Still, doesn't stop me from feeling guilty. I mean, I know I've been making it difficult on everyone who tries to get to know. I am well aware of my white knuckle grip on my past. It's just….it's not something I talk about." Amalia scoffed and placed her hands on her hips. Her intense blue gaze was directed away from her male companion. "I mean, I want people to know me…but-"

"You're not sure you can handle talking about it," Shepard finished for her. The biotic looked at him, not bothering to hide the surprise from her face. The commander smiled lightly. "You didn't think you had the monopoly on dark pasts, did you? We all have skeletons in our closets," he told her gently.

Amalia scoffed. "Some people have more skeletons than others, though." She shifted her gaze back to Shepard, a small smile on her face now.

"That may be true," he acknowledged with a nod. "What I want to be sure of, though, is that these skeletons will not interfere with your ability to help on our missions. I just want to be sure that your head is on straight."

"Don't worry about me, Shepard. I'm fine. I can deal with it," she told him.

The commander regarded her silently for a moment. "I propose a deal."

The biotic raised her eyebrows, intrigued. "What kind of deal?"

"You stay with us, sharing whatever you know about the Reapers, no questions asked about how you learned about them. You will have my complete trust, even without telling me everything about yourself. But, if your past begins to interfere with our mission, you must tell us what is going on so that we can help." Shepard extended his hand towards her, his eyes locked with hers. "Do we have a deal?"

Amalia's eyes strayed from the commander's face, to his scarred hand, and back up to his face. A smile appeared on her face. She firmly grasped the dark haired man's hand. "Deal."

The two of them released one another's hands, letting them fall to their sides. "Good. Now, I have one more order of business." Amalia looked at him. "I tried to see if I could locate your mother back when we were on the Citadel."

The biotic's lips parted slightly in undisguised surprise. "Really? I thought you were just saying that. I didn't think you'd actually look for her," Amalia answered.

This seemed to confuse the commander. "Why wouldn't i?"

"Well, I thought you had more important things to do while we were ashore," she explained.

"This was important to you so it became a priority on my to-do list," the commander told her, once again crossing his arms over his broad chest.

Amalia found herself blushing. She awkwardly tucked a stray strand of black hair behind her ear. "And? Did you find her?" she asked, already anticipating her answer.

Shepard shook his head. "From what I saw nothing." He uttered a scoffing laugh. "When I told you I would look for her, though, I completely forgot to ask you what her name was. Might have narrowed it down a little."

The dark haired woman clasped her hand over her mouth as she tried to stifle her laughter. "The great commander Shepard has a bad memory?" she smirked.

"It appears so," he smiled. He nodded towards her. "So what's her name?"

"Maralai. Maralai Carter." Amalia cocked her head slightly to the side. "If you didn't know her name, how did you look for her?" she inquired.

"I just used your last name. Turns out there are more than a few Carters in the galaxy."

Amalia's smile widened. "No kidding. Well, thank you for trying at least," she thanked gratefully.

"It was no problem at al. I'll try again the next time we have shore leave. Maybe this time I will be more successful, now that I have her name," Shepard smiled. "Do you think you could shoot me an email with her name, just to be sure I spell it correctly when I do the search."

The biotic laughed lightly. "Sure, no problem."

"Well," Shepard gestured past her to the closed door of the main battery, "I'll let you get back to whatever it was that you and Garrus were doing. We'll talk later." Amalia nodded. With that, the commander turned and began to stride down the hall and out of sight.

As Amalia watched him walk away, she suddenly felt a new feeling of respect for the commander. He really did care about his crew. He proved that much in how he had gone out of his way to try and locate her mother. In truth, she never expected him to find her, with or without her full name. It was a big galaxy. But she still appreciated him trying. In fact, she felt the beginnings of a bond with the commander, a strong friendship. The corner of her mouth tugging up into a slight smile, Amalia turned around and headed back into the main battery to rejoin Garrus.

A/N: Hello everyone! SOOOOOOOO sorry for the long break. Was distracted by the hobbit and other fanfics. BUT! Good news! I finally got my hands on a copy of mass effect so I FINALLY know everything that goes on during it. So, I can start being at least mildly accurate with my fanfic. Fingers crossed!

Also, just an fyi, I'm going to be shortening my chapters. It makes it more manageable and I can post chapters faster that way. If you have a problem with it, too bad!

Welcome to any new followers that joined up during my absence. As always, please give me some reviews.


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